LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


OF  PENNSYLVANIA, 


BRIGADIER  GENERAL  AND  BREVET  MAJOR  GENERAL,  U,  S,  i, 


MAJOR  GENERAL,  U.  S.V., 


CHIEF  OF  STAFF  AND  COMMANDER  OF  THE 

COMBINED  SECOND-THIRD  CORPS, 

ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC, 


CHIEF    OF    ENGINEERS,   U.S.A. 


BY  BREVET  MAJOR  GENERAL  J.  WATTS  DE  PEYSTER, 

HONORARY  MEMBER  DIAGNOTHIAN  LITERARY  SOCIETY,  FRANKLIN  AND  MARSHALL  COLLEGE, 

LANCASTER,  PENNSYLVANIA. 


LANCASTER  INTELLIGENCER  PRINT. 
1886. 


ANDREW  ATKINSON  HUMPHREYS. 


TAKEN   IN  HIS  LATER  YEARS,  WHEN  ABOUT  63. 


PART   FIRST. 


"  A  true  friend  is  distinguished  in  the  crisis  of 
hazard  and  necessity ;  when  the  gallantry  of  his  aid 
may  show  the  worth  of  his  soul  and  the  loyalty  of 
his  heart."  — Ennius. 

"  Trust  on  thy  friend,  deliberate  with  thyself; 

Pause,  ponder,  silt ;  not  eager  in  the  choice, 

Nor  jealous  of  the  chosen ;  fixing,  fix  ; 

Judge  before  friendship,  then  confide  till  death." 

—  Young. 
"  Rest,  soldier,rest !  thy  weary  task  is  done  ; 

Thy  God,  thy  country,  thou  has  served  them  well; 

Thine  is  true  glory — glory  bravely  won  ; 

On  lips  of  men  unborn  thy  name  shall  dwell. 
"  Live  !  live  on  fame's  bright  scroll,  heroic  friend ! 

Thy  memory  now  we  to  her  record  give, 

To  earth,  thy  dust;  our  thoughts  to  heaven  ascend, 

Where  with  the  immortals,  thou  dost  ever  live  !" 

— Palmer. 

[In  a  limited  space  it  is  next  to  impossible 
to  do  more  than  to  refer  to  the  services  ren 


dered  to  his  country  by  this  distinguished 
officer,  since  their  mere  mention  fills  Article 
No.  641, Graduating  Class,  of  1831,  two  pages, 
384,  385,  386,  Vol.  i,  of  the  "Biographical 
Register  of  the  Officers  and  Graduates  of  the 
U.  S.  Military  Academy  at  West  Point,  N.  Y., 
|  from  its  establishment,  March  16,  1802,  to 
the  Army  Re-organization  of  1866-' 6 7,"  by 
Brevet  Major  General  Geo.  W.  Cullum,  Colo 
nel  Corps  of  Engineers,  U.  S.  Army,  Vol. 
i,  1802-1840.  New  York,  D.  Van  Nostrand, 
192  Broadway,  1868:  "  and  in  it  each  state 
ment  of  service  is  so  abreviated  in  brevier  or 
smaller  type  that  simply  to  reprint  them  in  full 
in  larger  type  would  occupy  eight  pages  of  this 


225803 


4  /'  -    i\  ANDREW  ATKINSON  HUMPHREYS. 


magazine.  Consequently  this  sketch  must  be 
much  more  general  than  that  of  Wayne, 
because  although  Wayne's  services  extended 
over  a  much  longer  period,  and  although 
they  were  of  absolute  and  decisive  import 
ance,  the  labors  of  Humphreys  were  of  far 
greater  magnitude,  proportional  to  the  de 
velopment  of  the  country,  and  whereas 
Washington  as  General-in-Chief  never  com 
manded  an  army  larger  than  a  strong  di 
vision  or  depleted  corps,  Humphreys,  when 
Brigadier,  was  at  the  head  of  a  division  as 
large  as  Washington's  army  on  most  occa 
sions,  and,  as  a  Major  General,  of  a  corps  far 
more  formidable  than  all  the  forces  Wash 
ington  ever  controlled.  While  as  chief-of- 
staff  he,  and  he  alone,  formulated  the  orders 
governing  the  operations  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac — an  army  which  comprised  ten 
times  more  men  than  Washington  had  at  Mon- 
mouth,  the  field  to  which  he  brought  the  most 
and  best  in  quantity  and  quality  that  he  ever 
had.] 


THE  question  must  often  occur  to  reflect 
ing  minds:  What  *is  the  secret  of  human 
success  ?  The  proverb  is  almost  universally 
impressed  upon  the  minds  of  youth  in  civil 
ized  countries  that  "Honesty  is  the  best  of 
policy."  Towards  God  it  certainly  is. 
Towards  men  is  it  ?  If  in  the  latter  case  it 
were  not  of  doubtful  truth  another  proverb 
would  not  hold  universally  good  :  "Nothing 
succeeds  like  success. ' '  if  success  were  the 
worldly  test  or  reward  of  merit,  virtue  would 
not  ever  be  found  upon  the  scaffold  and 
vice  upon  the  throne. 

"  Truth  forever  on  the  scaffold,  wrong  forever  on  the 
'throne." 

This  ultimately  resolves  itself  into  the 
sugar-coated  pill  that  "Virtue  is  its  own  re 
ward;"  a  recompense  pretty  much  all  that 
it  gets  on  earth.  This  result  is  certainly 
very  unsatisfactory  and  does  not  afford 
wholesome  food  for  consideration.  The  idea 
of  transferring  the  reward  of  merit  to  an 
other  world  is  a  pretty  hard  system  of  justice 
for  those  who  have  not  a  sufficient  strength 
of  character — which  is  .often  the  result  of 
physical  defects  or  deficiencies — to  endure 
the  wrongs  so  eloquently  set  forth  in  Ham 
let's  soliloquy.  Emperors  and  Popes  and 
Generals  and  Governors  who  have  risen  to 


the  highest  fame  and  fortune  have  in  the 
majority  of  cases  been  more  or  less  absolute 
monsters  of  iniquity.  Constantine,  who  or 
ganized  the  Christian  Church,  was  a  crimi 
nal  of  the  deepest  dye.  Napoleon  Bona 
parte,  almost  deified,  was  a  tissue  of  mean 
ness,  falsehood  and  cruelty,  not  possible  to 
be  redeemed  by  even  the  vast  ability  credit 
ed  to  him,  but  which  in  reality  he  did  not 
possess.  In  very  fact,  there  is  scarcely  a 
hero  whose  success  will  bear  the  probe  or 
touchstone  of  truth.  What  is  more,  if  time 
vindicates  and  redresses,  it  is  very  seldom 
that  good  men  survive  to  profit  by  the  re 
vulsion  of  public  opinion  in  their  favor; 
and  there  is  no  passage  in  the  Bible,  the 
superlative  of  common  sense,  which  is  so 
suggestive  of  painful  thought  as  the  Verse  10 
of  Chapter  xi  of  Revelations,  where  the 
slain  witnesses  are  represented  under  the 
altar  asking :  "How  long  before  judgment 
and  vengeance?"  In  this  very  country  how 
often  have  the  honest  minority  beheld  the 
baser  candidate  elevated  over  the  far  better 
man  higher  and  higher  to  office ;  and  how 
often  have  Generals  who  have  saved  a  State 
been  superseded  by  men  superior  alone  in 
political  influence,  effrontery  or  fraud?  The 
Mortuary  List  of  Generals  who  have  perished 
on  the  battle-field  is  very  numerous,  but  its 
startling  aggregate  becomes  a  much  more 
worthy  object  of  contemplation  when  it  is 
found  to  comprise  so  many  who  were  the 
victims  of  a  broken  heart;  that  is  to  say, 
the  victims  of  ingratitude,  injustice  and 
crime. 

It  is  a  painful  consideration,  but  the  list  has 
been  growing  larger  and  larger  ever  since 
humanity  has  possessed  anything  like  authen 
tic  annals.  The  presentation  of  striking  ex 
amples  would  constitute  a  most  interesting 
book,  and  the  only  consolation  which  attends 
the  contemplation  is  the  equanimity  of  the 
stoic  who  looks  upon  everything  as  the  result 
of  "inevitable  law"  established  at  first,  then 
developed  and  still  developing  so  that  the  very 
divergencies  which  men  regard  as  exceptions 
are  the  germs  of  new  laws  destined  in  time 
to  produce  another  harvest  of  seed  adapted 
to  other  and  remote  conditions  of  the  world. 
The  only  present  panacea  for  all  the  evils 
which  are  daily  witnessed  is  that  the  Supreme 
Ruler  must  be  just,  because  Almighty  Power 
and  Wisdom  are  inconsistent  with  injustice. 
It  is  that  faith,  that  living  hope  which  is  al 
most  equivalent  to  absolute  faith,  which  alone 
can  sustain  a  man  who  has  sufficient  clear 
ness  of  vision  to  perceive  and  comprehend 
the  littlenesses  by  which  men,  esteemed  great, 


ANDREW  ATKINSON  HUMPHREYS. 


become  so  in  the  eyes  of  the  multitude.  It 
might  almost  be  safe  to  defy  honest  scrutiny 
to  point  out  a  single  individual  who  has  risen 
to  power  and  fame  by  the  unassisted  force  of 
his  own  individual  merit.  Men  are  the  crea 
tures  of  circumstances  without  the  slightest 
power  over  the  circumstances  which  make 
and  unmake  them. 

Among  the  ablest  of  our  "  Men  of  War," 
our  "Great  Captains" — grand  terms  if 
properly  understood — the  ablest  and  most 
meritorious  in  all  respects  certainly  did  not 
attain  the  prominence  that  their  capacity 
merited  or  that  their  services  deserved.  The 
most  marked  example  among  these  was  un 
doubtedly  George  H.  Thomas;  although  the 
country  is  gradually  coming  to  the  knowledge 
of  what  a  superlative  soldier,  general  and 
citizen  he  was.  Another  man  who  did  not 
enjoy  the  opportunity  of  exhibiting  his  full 
force  was  A.  A.  Humphreys — kept  down  in 
an  even  greater  degree  by  his  own  modesty 
than  he  was  prevented  from  rising  by  un 
happy  prejudices.  Major  General  Andrew 
Atkinson  Humphreys  was  great  as  a  scien 
tific  and  practical  engineer  ;  equally  great  as 
a  division  commander ;  even  greater  as  the 
chief  of  staff  of  the  grandest  army  of  the 
Republic ;  and  greatest  as  the  head  of  a 
splendid  corps,  as  a  planner,  director  and 
fighter.  Well  might  one  of  our  most  popu 
lar  major-generals,  who  came  near  being  the 
head  of  the  nation,  declare  that  if  he  was  an 
absolute  monarch  and  could  dispose  of  a 
large  army  he  knew  no  one  to  whom  he 
would  entrust  its  direction  and  leadership 
with  such  perfect  confidence  as  Humphreys. 
On  the  other  hand,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the 
Rebellion,  in  many  respects  its  Arch-magus, 
after  the  four  successive  changes  in  the  com 
mand  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  observed : 
"  They  have  not  got  the  right  man  yet,  and 
they  never  will  have  him  until  they  appoint 
Andrew  Atkinson  Humphreys." 

An  officer  of  high  rank  in  the  Rebel 
army,  who  occupied  a  very  conspicuous 
position,  a  hard  military  student,  and  prac 
tically  well  versed  in  military  operations, 
remarked  in  substance,  that  "while  he  looked 
upon  Hancock  as  the  best  fighter  in  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  Humphreys  was  best 
fitted  to  command  it." 

In  regard  to  soldiers  an  expression  is 
sometimes  used  which,  perhaps,  is  the  most 
complimentary  possible,  that  is,  styling  an 
officer  a  "duty-man."  Wayne  was  certainly 
such,  and  in  comparing  the  portrayal  of  his 
character  and  deeds  with  those  of  the  hero 
of  the  present  sketch,  a  very  close  resemb 


lance  will  be  found ;  Wayne  was  one,  Hum 
phreys  was  another  duty-man. 

"  Humphreys'  leadership  and  soldiership — 
was  the  attest  of  a  veteran  observer — were 
so  unobtrusive  that  the  country  was  not 
aware  of  what  an  able  man  it  possessed  in 
him." 

A  Major-General — himself  very  distin 
guished,  experienced  and  esteemed — who 
occupied  a  position  which  gave  him  the 
amplest  opportunities  of  judging — said  that 
he  "considered  Humphreys,  take  him  all  in 
all,  the  best  General  in  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  or  best  fitted  to  command  it." 

The  same  remark  was  made  by  other 
prominent  eyewitnesses,  with  the  additional 
commendation  that  "if  Humphreys  had 
enjoyed  a  more  influential  position  the 
Northern  people  would  have  enjoyed  many 
more  occasions  to  rejoice.  This  must  have 
been  the  case  if  the  power  of  handling 
large  bodies  of  troops ;  if  rare  science  and 
its  test,  application ;  if  calmness  and  clear 
ness  of  judgment  under  fire ;  if  energy,  un 
daunted  courage  and  self-forgetfulness  in 
view  of  results  have  any  effect  upon  mili 
tary  operations." 

Another  officer,  whose  peculiar,  varied 
and  constant  service  gave  him  unusual  ad 
vantages  for  judging  and  comparing,  said  a 
very  handsome  thing  of  Humphreys.  "  For 
general,  as  well  as  intimate  acquaintance 
with  the  country  in  which  he  (Humphreys) 
was  operating,  and  the  troops  against  whom 
he  was  engaged — in  fact,  the  general  rela 
tive  situation  of  affairs,  Humphreys  was  sec 
ond  to  no  other  Union  general." 

' '  Humphreys  was  wonderful  in  his  powei 
of  seeing  what  had  to  be  done  and  of  doing 
it  promptly.  He  was  a  consummate  handler 
of  troops,  [out  of  fire  and  under  fire]  as  wit 
ness  before  [and  amid]  the  culminating  shock 
on  the  second  [THE]  day  of  Gettysburg." 

From  his  usual  quiescent  suavity,  he  was 
metamorphosed  into  the  impersonation  of 
enthusiasm  in  action.  "General  Hum 
phreys,"  wrote  a  gallant  soldier  (17,  12,  72), 
afterwards  occupying  an  important  civil  posi 
tion,  "holds  a  place  in  my  estimation  as  a 
soldier  whose  skill,  bravery  and  modesty  are 
second  to  none,  and  whose  real  service  was 
infinitely  more  valuable  than  that  of  many 
officers  more  talked  about  in  the  newspapers. ' ' 

"Take  him  all  in  all,  soldiership,  culture, 
science,  generalship,  manners,  lines  of 
thought,  social  relations,  disposition,  inten 
tion  and  energy,  friendship  and  affection,  he 
realized  the  words  of  another  unfortunate, 


ANDREW  ATKINSON  HUMPHREYS. 


the  poet,  George  Brookford,  singing  over  the 
grave  of  a  national  hero 

"  The  noble  heart,  the  master  mind, 

The  chief  that  knew  no  fear, 
And  leaves  no  warrior  peer  behind, 
Lies,  sleeping  soundly,  here. 

When  riding  'mid  the  battle's  blaze, 

His  eye  with  soul  afire, 
The  traitor  foe  stood  still  to  gaze, 

And  wonder  and  admire." 

"•  A  high  ideal  of  excellence,"  according 
to  Ram's  '  Philosophy  of  War/  in  any  in 
dividual  involves  combativeness  and  readi 
ness  to  suffer.  The  great  soldier,  who  has 
also  the  brains  to  be  a  great  civilian  and  the 
heart  of  a  good  man,  is  the  highest  of  human 
beings.  Such  men  have  been  rarely  seen. 
Alexander,  in  spite  of  the  vices  of  his  day, 
approached  this  ideal.  Napoleon  missed  it 
through  having  a  petty  heart. ' '  There  was 
nothing  petty  in  our  hero,  Humphreys ;  but, 
on  the  contrary,  everything  grand,  the 
grandest ! 

It  is  a  false   but   favorite   idea  with   the 
people   of  these   United   States   that   there 
is    no   advantage  in    ancestry    and    birth.* 
The   ignorant,  uneducated   masses— for  the 
masses  are  so,    let   demigods   assert  to    the 
contrary  as  often  and  loudly  as  they  please — 
are  so  profoundly  ignorant  that  they  do  not 
remember,  or  know,  that  the  term  "aristoc 
racy  ' '  does  not  imply  the  might  or  right  to 
govern,  derived  through  the  simple  advan 
tage  of  birth,  but  signifies  the  rule  of  the 
"  best  born  "  in  all  that  best  born  signifies. 
(See    Myer's    Mazzini,    23).     Socrates — ac 
cording  to  Xenophon — would  say:    "That 
when  the  chief  offices  of  the  commonwealth 
were  lodged  in  the  hands  of  a  small  number 
of  the  most  eminent  citizens,  it  was  called  an 
aristocracy."      In    this,  (the  correct  sense), 
aristocracy  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  physi 
cal  among  men,  although  its  advantages  are 
acknowledged  in  horses  and  cattle,  but  the 
best -born,  through  hereditary  genius,  the  sim 
ple  bed-rock  truth  of  one  of  the  most  mis 
understood  expressions  in  our  language,  the 
"Survival  of  the  Fittest," — that  "Heredi 
tary  Genius"  is  a  fact,  is  a  problem  solved. 
The  direct  transmission  of  superior  qualities 
may  be  open  to  question,  but  the  indirect,  in 
one  sense,  although  perfectly  direct  in  an 
other,  is  as  irrefutable  as  that  light  may  come 
to  us  from  the  sun  through  various  mediums, 
but  yet  it  is  light,  and  it  is  the  light  of  the 
sun. 


*See  Dr.  Geo.  H.  Naphey's  chapter  on  "Atavism,"  and 
"  Inheritance  of  Talent  and  Genius,"  and  "Sayings  of  the 
fir^at  and  f^ood ."  and  "Distinction  between  Opinion  anc 


Great  and  Good,"  and 
Truth." 


Everyone  who  has  visited  that  remarkable 
urothic  structure,  the  Church  of  St.  Eustache, 
n  Paris,  must  have  seen  near  the  great  door 
a  monument,  which  commemorates  one  of 
;he  ablest  and  least  known  generals  who 
lave  illustrated  the  history  of  France — 
Francois  de  Chevert.  The  inscription  on  it 
las  been  celebrated  by  Mercier  and  is  attrib 
uted  to  Diderot.  A  portion  of  the  inscrip 
tion  runs  thus : 

"  He  rose,  in  spite  of  envy,  by  the 

force  of  merit, 
and  every  promotion  was  purchased  by  a  distinguished 

action : — 

the  single  title  of  Marshal  of  France 
was  wanting  to  him  not  to  his  glory,  but  to  the   ex 
ample  of  those  who  will  take  him  as  a 
model  for  emulation." 

If  for  the  words  of  "Marshal  of  France  " 
be  substituted  "  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Armies  of  the  United  States,"  this  part  of 
the  inscription  would  be  as  applicable  to 
Humphreys  as  to  Chevert. 

The  apologue  of  the  Russian  philosopher, 
Tourgenieff,  exhibiting  the  deserving  poet 
rejected  by  his  compatriots,  who  triumph 
antly  crowned  a  fortunate  rival — a  rival  who 
had  actually  stolen  the  former's  verses — is 
equally  pertinent  to  CHEVERT  and  to  HUM 
PHREYS.  The  latter  was  so  great  a  man — so 
exceptionally  great  a  man — "because  he  cov-  • 
ered  so  much  space  so  far,  in  so  many  direc 
tions,  and  because,  unlike  most  men  who 
are  distinguished  in  only  one  or  two  direc 
tions,  he  was  a  wonderfully  capable  man  in 
a  variety  of  directions,  in  scarcely  one  of 
which,  and  at  rare  intervals,  individuals 
made  a  decided  mark. ' ' 

A  cynical  critic,  although  a  man  of  ex 
perience  and  study,  summed  up  the  charac 
ter  of  Humphreys  soon  after  the  war,  1869, 
as  aptly  as  concisely,  "as  a  fighting  division 
commander ;  as  a  proficient  in  the  handling 
of  a  corps ;  as  a  consummate  chief-of-staff  of 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac;  as  an  intrepid 
gentleman ;  as  a  faithful  soldier ;  and  as  a 
remarkable  engineer  General  Humphreys 
had  no  superior.  His  survey  and  reports 
upon  the  Mississippi  will  be  as  proud  a  me 
morial  of  his  engineering  capacity  as  his 
military  record,  beginning  with  the  Florida 
War,  in  1836, — a  record  which  is  without  a 
stain,  as  rich  in  historic  deeds  and  services 
as  '  the  sacred  shield  of  Lancelot.'  ' 

It  is  such  a  full  and  rounded  life  as  that  of 
Humphreys  which  justifies  the  lines  of  Tenny 
son,  and  a  belief  in  a  continuation  of  indi 
viduality  beyond  the  grave : 

Though  world  on  world,  in  myriad  myriads  roll 
Round  us,  each  with  different  powers, 


ANDREW  ATKINSON  HUMPHREYS. 


And  other  forms  of  life  than  ours, 
What  know  we  greater  than  the  soul  ? 

He  is  gone,  who  seemed  so  great — 

Gone  but  nothing  can  bereave  him 
Of  the  force  he  made  his  own 

Being  here,  and  we  believe  him 
Something  far  advanced  in  state. 

Yes !  it  is  a  career  like  that  of  the  subject  of 
this  sketch  that  makes  a  "Thinker," — who 
may  have  doubted  the  Immortality  of  Man  as 
an  invention  of  priestcraft,  and  as  a  delusive 
hope, — come  decidedly  to  the  conclusion 
that  Divine  Wisdom  is  never  guilty  of  waste, 
and  therefore  there  must  be  some  utilization 
of  aggregated  and  perfected  forces,  for 
which — reasoning  by  analogy — individuality 
could  scarcely  be  permitted  to  cease  at  death? 
Major-General  J.  W.  Phelps,  U.  S.  V.,  of  Ver 
mont,  arrived  at  the  same  judgment  by  a  some 
what  different  course  of  reasoning.  He 
thought  that  some  men  by  individual  force 
and  growth,  petrified  themselves,  so  to  speak, 
into  a  condition  capable  of  resisting  the 
change  from  what  is  styled  life  into  death,  but 
he  considered  this  power  very  restricted  in  its 
application  and  operation.  Humphreys  based 
his  faith  in  the  individual  immortality  of  the 
soul  upon  the  belief  that  a  creation  like  man 
after  a  long  life  of  usefulness  involving  con 
tinual  improvement  and  accumulation  of 
various  knowledge  valuable  to  his  kind,  must 
continue  to  exist  an  Ego,  or  else  the  maga 
zine  had  been  filled  in  vain,  which  is  incon 
sistent  with  the  intelligence — Seneca's  "  Uni 
versal  Reason  " — which  formed  and  regulates 
the  universe.  He  himself  was  an  example  of 
the  truth  of  this  idea,  if  ever  a  notable  ex 
ample  did  exist.  A  great  and  at  the  same 
time  a  good  man,  who  attained  the  ripest  age 
with  undiminished  faculties;  a  magnificent 
soldier  who  combined  the  calmest  intrepidity 
with  executive  ability  in  battle  ;  a  mind  capa 
ble  of  working  with  the  nicest  precision  amid 
the  wildest  churm  of  conflict  under  excep 
tional  circumstances  of  peril ;  a  scientist  of 
views  most  comprehensive  and  practical ;  of 
knowledge  vast  and  developed:  that  "a 
marked  combination  such  an  aggregate  of 
excellence  not  to  be  "far  advanced  in  state," 
after  death,  would  infer  an  absurdity  on  the 
part  of  superlative  Wisdom  and  Power. ' '  It 
would  be  equivalent  to  filling  a  store-house 
with  the  most  precious  commodities  simply 
to  destroy  it  and  them  by  a  sudden  death, 
catastrophe  or  stroke,  as  in  the  case  of 
Humphreys,  or  to  suffer  them  to  go  to 
waste  through  protracted  disease,  as  is  or 
dinarily  the  case.  Nature  allows  no  such 
destruction  and  knows  no  such  waste. 


The  author  of  a  very  remarkable  book, 
"Sketches  of  Creation,"  truthfully  observes  . 
"  The  blood  of  the  thousands  and  hundreds 
of  thousands  who  fell  on  the  hundred  fierce 
ly  contested  fields  of  the  ' Great  Rebellion,' 
and  the  traces  of  the  manful  struggles  which 
they  waged,  were  all  washed  out  by  the  next 
spring's  rains,  while  even  the  ripple-marks  of 
the  age  of  Saurians,  and  the  impression  of 
the  rain-drops  of  the  passing  shower,  are 
perpetuated  in  all  their  distinctiveness 
through  ages.  Mart 's  history  is  not  written 
on  rocks  and  river  shores.  His  monuments 
are  not  foot-marks  imprinted  on  the  soil  and 
sands  of  earth,  but  achievements  of  moral 
and  intellectual  labor,  less  perishable  than 
the  visible  records  of  the  ancient  Saurians, 
because  inwrought  into  the  lineaments  of  the 
indissoluble  soul." 

These  too  eloquent  remarks  are  both  ap 
plicable  and  inapplicable  to  Major-General 
Andrew  Atkinson  Humphreys — applicable 
in  the  grander  and  broader,  inapplicable 
in  the  restricted  sense.  It  was  under  the 
grander  scope  of  vision  that  our  hero,  "  a 
scientific  soldier,"  as  he  was  elegantly 
styled  by  Major  J.  M.  Bundy,  editor  of 
the  Mail  and  Express,  so  greatly  exceeds 
in  enduring  reputation  his  peers  in  rank 
and  his  superiors  in  command.  "Man's 
History,"  says  Alexander  Winchell,  "  [as  a 
rule]  is  not  written  on  the  rocks  and  river 
shores."  This  man's  (Humphrey's)  is  writ 
ten  on  both,  "on  rocks  and  river  shores." 
In  the  former  case  "on  rocks"  through  his 
Explorations  and  Surveys  for  Railroads  from 
the  Mississippi  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and 
Geographical  Explorations  west  of  the  Mis 
sissippi  from  1854  to  1 86 1  ;  and  "on  river 
shores"  through  the  "Topographical  and 
Hydrographical  Survey  of  the  Delta  of  the 
Mississippi  River ' '  a  voluminous  report,  of 
world-wide  celebrity,  translated  and  retrans 
lated  six  or  seven  times  abroad  in  1848-' 51, 
and  in  his  "Examination  of  the  Mississippi 
Levees,"  1865  and  1866. 

What  is  more  and  better  for  the 'purpose 
of  this  article,  the  labors  of  Humphreys  do 
exemplify  the  magnificent  truth  of  the  pre 
ceding  quotation  which,  for  emphasis,  will 
bear  repetition  :  "  His  monuments  are  not 
[only]  footmarks  imprinted  on  the  soil  and 
sands  of  earth,  but  achievements  of  moral 
and  intellectual  labor,  less  perishable  than 
the  visible  records  of  the  ancient  Saurians, 
because  inwrought  into  the  lineaments  of  the 
indissoluble  soul." 

Humphreys  resigned  from  the  army  3oth 
September,  1836,  but  demonstrated  his  pos- 


ANDREW  ATKINSON  HUMPHREYS. 


session  of  such  rare  qualities,  he  was  reap- 
pointed  7th  July,  1838,  to  a  far  better  posi 
tion. 

Thus  he  did  much  better  for  himself  by 
resigning  than  if  he  had  remained  con 
tinuously  in  the  discharge  of  regular  profes 
sional  routine.  During  the  ensuing  twenty- 
two  years  his  "Statement  of  Service"  is  a 
continuous  record  of  scientific  triumphs,  and, 
as  hereinbefore  stated,  his  survey  of  the  Mis 
sissippi  and  calculation  of  the  dynamics  of  its 
floods — the  effects  of  inundations,  the  re 
straints  and  remedies — are  to  this  day  a 
"bonanza  "  of  the  most  precious  facts,  de 
ductions  and  directions  for  every  country  of 
which  the  scientific  administrations  have  to 
grapple  with  difficulties  of  a  similar  charac 
ter.  His  publications  are  caskets  filled  with 

"  Pure  and  precious  pearls  of  splendid  thought," 
and  are  recognized  as  of  unexceeded  value 
throughout  the  civilized  world. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  more,  even, 
when  so  much  remains  to  be  said,  but  the 
attest  of  such  a  witness  as  Colonel  William 
H.  Paine  is  worthy  of  citation.  Colonel 
Paine  was  literally  the  "Pathfinder"  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  who  did  more  danger 
ous  duty  in  exploring  the  difficult  region  of 
Virginia,  and  served  repeatedly  with  more 
generals  than  any  other  officer  in  the  national 
forces.  Having  had  so  many  opportunities 
for  observation  and  comparison,  his  judg 
ment  is  that  of  an  expert  of  the  first-class. 
He  is  always  exuberant  in  his  eulogies  of 
Humphreys,  a  praise  echoed  and  endorsed 
by  men  of  every  rank,  who  had  the  honor 
and  glory  to  serve  with  such  a  perfect  speci 
men  of  the  real  gentleman  and  exemplar  of 
a  commander.  After  the  war  he  wrote  as 
follows  :  "  Humphreys'  leadership  and  sol 
diership  were  so  unobtrusive  that  the  country 
is  not  aware  of  what  an  able  man  he  is. ' ' 

There  are  many  eminent  philosophers  who 
have  argued  against  "hereditary  genius," 
claiming  that  the  truth  of  this  rule  is  not  de- 
monstr'ated  by  the  examples  of  history ;  but, 
if  so,  Humphreys  is  a  notable  exception 
to  its  falsity.  His  grandfather,  likewise 
wise  his  father,  were  unsurpassed  naval  archi 
tects,  and  to  the  former  is  due  the  concep 
tion  of  those  frigates  "  745  (or  line  of  battle 
ships)  in  disguise,"  which  redeemed  the 
failures  and  disgraces  of  the  American  land 
forces,  by  triumphs  that  are  immortal  in  their 
unexpected  and  extraordinary  results.  With 
a  preference  for  the  army — which  is  curious 
in  the  sons  of  men  who  have  distinguished 
themselves  in  connection  with  the  navy — 


young  Humphreys  elected  to  enter  the  Mili 
tary  Academy. 

Here  limited  space  renders  it  necessary  to 
postpone  any  farther  consideration  of  the 
military  actions  of  General  Humphreys  dur 
ing  the  Great  American  Conflict.  His  State 
ments  of  Services  must  appear  as  a  separate 
article.  They  are  worthy  of  study,  because 
he  was  not  only  a  scientific  but  an  enthusi 
astic  soldier,  who  literally  lived  another  and 
higher  life  amid  the  terrors  and  horrors,  the 
dangers  and  demands  of  battle.  There,  he 
was  indeed  alive — calmly,  grandly,  efficient 
ly  alive.  Physically  and  morally  it  is  true  of 
him  what  is  narrated  of  Nelson,  when  asked 
if  on  one  occasion  Fear  had  not  influenced 
his  conduct,  he  said:  "I  have  never  met 
Fear."  In  one  of  his  letters  to  the  writer  he 
suddenly  breaks  out,  filled  with  fond  memo 
ries  of  the  joys  of  battle  {guadia  certaminij} 
and  portrays  his  sensations  with  a  vivid  force 
of  language  which  present  living  pictures 
(tableaux  vivants)  of  scenes  which  he  held, 
constituted  the  superlative  of  the  sublime. 

*          *          *          *          #         #          * 

The  war  being  entirely  over  i8th  August, 
1866,  Humphreys  was  made  Chief-of-Engi- 
neers,  the  highest  and  most  honorable  scien 
tific  position  in  the  .country,  and,  in  1879, 
having  reached  the  legal  term  of  active  ser 
vice,  he  was  retired,  bearing  with  him  out  of 
office  the  "respect,  admiration  and  love" 
of  every  one  who  had  had,  or  enjoyed, 
private,  civil,  or  military  relations  with  him. 
Having  done  actions  worthy  of  Caesar  in  the 
field,  he  took  up  his  pen  and  wrote  a  volume 
of  commentaries  entitled  "The  Virginian 
Campaign  of  '64  and  '65,"  published  by 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons  in  1883,  worthy  to 
rank  in  the  same  class  with  those  of  the  Caesar 
whose  executive  soldiership  he  had  emulated. 
Shortly  after,  a  short  Supplementary  volume 
was  published,  also  by  Charles  Scribner's 
Sons,  supplementary  to  their  regular  series, 
but  introductory  to  the  last  and  twelfth  num 
ber  of  it,  so  as  to  present  as  concisely  as  is 
consistent  with  clearness  the  operations  of 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  from  Gettysburg 
to  Appomattox  Court  House.  The  first  mili 
tary  treatise  which  has  survived  in  accord 
ance  with  the  inevitable  law  which  applies 
to  all  things,  "  The  survival  of  the  fittest," 
is  a  Chinese  work,  bearing  date  B.  c.  600. 
About  275  B.  c.,  Pyrrhus,  the  Frederic  the 
Great  of  antiquity,  produced  a  Book  on 
Tactics— " Treatise  on  the  Art  of  War"— 
of  which  nothing  much  is  known  beyond  its 
reputation  among  military  magnates.  This 
was  extant  within  the  time  of  Cicero.  Just 


ANDREW  ATKINSON  HUMPHREYS. 


9 


before  the  Advent,  Caesar's  "  Commen 
taries"  appeared.  A  second  gap  of  over 
800  years  occurred,  until  the  Emperor  Leo 
VI.  produced  a  "Summary  of  the  Military 
Art,"  containing  lessons  which  can  never 
be  inapplicable.  About  1361,  Timour  or 
Tamerlane  composed  his  "Commentaries  of 
the  Caesar  of  the  East"  and  "Institutions 
of  the  Empire."  Timour  was  a  great  soldier 
and  had  a  finely  organized  army,  admirably 
uniformed,  strange  to  say,  and  equipped. 
Another  silence  of  a  little  more  than  a  cen 
tury  was  broken,  at  the  West,  by  the  "Rosier 
de  Guerres,"  attributed  to  one  of  the  most 
misjudged,  misrepresented  and  maligned 
monarchs,  Louis  XI.  of  France,  who,  never 
theless,  gave  the  first  impulse  to  real  progress 
in  national,  municipal  and  military  adminis 
tration.  Shortly  after,  Montluc's  "Soldiers' 
Breviary ' '  was  printed,  which  even  Napoleon 
considered  worthy  of  citation.  In  the  eigh 
teenth  century,  Frederic  the  Great  pub 
lished  his  War  Histories  and  "Instructions 
for  his  Generals,"  &c.,  which  are  models  in 
many  respects.  Before  the  "Wars  produced 
by  the  French  Revolution"  had  closed,  von 
Bulow,  a  genius,  and  Jomini,  a  man  of 
mere  talent,  placed  before  the  world  military 
treatises  and  criticisms  which  need  no  more 
than  mention.  Humphreys  is  in  some  re 
gards  "  Casar  redivivus  ;"  in  others,  Fred 
eric  the  Great;  in  others,  again,  Jomini. 
His  Manual  of  War,  for  brevity  in  style,  will 
live  an  authority  as  long  as  an  army  con 
tinues  to  be  a  national  necessity.  While  en 
gaged  in  preparing  a  revised  and  enlarged 
edition  of  his  Military  Treatise,  without  a 
visible  symptom  of  decay,  the  light  of  his 
life  went  out,  instantly,  without  a  flicker. 

Such  a  sudden  and  peaceful  manner  of 
death,  contrary  to  general  opinion,  is  by  no 
means  as  uncommon  as  is  usually  supposed. 
James  de  Lancey,  the  celebrated  Colonial 
Governor  of  New  York,  died  in  exactly  the 
same  way.  My  great-grandfather,  who  mar 
ried  his  sister,  has  left  on  record  that,  called 
to  his  side  by  the  alarm  of  his  illness,  he 
found  on  his  arrival  that  the  Governor  was 
already  dead.  "  He  sat  reclining  in  his  easy 
chair,  one  leg  drawn  in,  the  other  extended ; 
his  arms  over  the  elbows  so  naturally  that  had 
I  not  been  apprised  of  it  I  certainly  should 
have  spoken  as  I  entered  the  room. ' ' 

Identical  in  the  circumstances  of  the 
above  was  the  decease  of  Francis  W.  Ed 
monds,  a  member  of  note  of  the  National 
Academy  of  Designs.  He  was  found  seated 
in  his  "  easy  chair  near  his  own  bed — in  that 
position,  dead." 


Perhaps,  however,  a  still  more  exact  paral 
lel  is  found  in  the  case  of  "the  illustrious 
Nestor  of  the  Chemical  Revolution,"  Dr. 
Joseph  Black. 

"  Thus  iue  spin  otit  the  thread  of  life  to  the  last 
fibre.  It  was  his  generous  and  manly  wish  that  he 
might  never  live  to  be  a  burden  to  his  friends ;  and 
never  was  the  wish  more  completely  gratified,  on  the 
26th  of  November,  1799,  and  in  the  seventy-first  year 
of  his  age,  he  expired  without  any  convulsion,  shock 
or  stupor  to  announce  or  retard  the  approach  of  death. 
Being  at  table  with  his  usual  fare — some  bread,  a  few 
prunes,  and  a  measured  quantity  of  milk  diluted  with 
water,  and  having  the  cup  in  his  hand  when  the  last 
stroke  of  the  pulse  was  to  be  given,  he  had  set  it  down 
upon  his  knees,  which  were  joined  together,  and  kept 
it  steady  with  his  hand  in  the  manner  of  a  person  per 
fectly  at  ease,  and  in  this  attitude  expired,  without 
spilling  a  drop,  and  without  a  writhe  in  his  counte 
nance,  as  if  an  experiment  had  been  required  to  show 
his  friends  the  facility  with  which  he  had  departed. 
The  servant  opened  the  door  to  tell  him  that  some 
one  had  left  his  name,  but  getting  no  answer,  stepped 
about  half-way  toward  him,  and  seeing  him  sitting  in 
that  easy  posture,  supporting  his  basin  of  milk  with 
one  hand  he  thought  that  he  had  dropped  to  sleep, 
which  he  had  sometimes  seen  happen  after  his  meals. 
The  man  went  back  and  shut  the  door,  but  before  he 
got  down  stairs,  some  anxiety  that  he  could  not  ac 
count  for  made  him  return  and  look  again  at  his  mas 
ter.  Even  then  he  was  satisfied,  after  coming  pretty 
near,  and  turned  to  go  away,  but  again  returned,  and 
coming  quite  close,  found  his  master  without  life." 

The  following  extract  from  a  letter  will 
present  the  peculiar  peacefulness  of  General 
Humphrey's  unexpected  decease.  Such  a 
termination  of  a  life  which  had  been  de 
voted  to  science  over  fifty  years  of  the  sever 
est,  and  continual  draughts  upon  the  brain 
fibres  is,  as  stated, -not  exceptional. 

"  The  General  left  Washington  on  the  ist  of  Au 
gust  last,  (1883),  taking  our  daughter  to  Utica,  and 
then  went  to  Newport,  where  he  intended  to  remain 
until  September,  or  later,  if  the  weather  was  not  too 
warm  to  return.  He  never  looked  better  or  seemed 
better  than  when  he  left;  but  knowing  how  the  heat 
prostrated  him,  and  fearing  it,  he  thought  it  best  to 
make  the  change.  The  summer  throughout  with  us 
was  delightfully  cool,  no  undue  heat  such  as  he 
feared  we  would  have,  and  which  apprehension 
caused  him  to  leave.  The  summer  at  Newport 
proved  to  be  cold  and  disagreeable,  and  at  the  end  of 
two  weeks  he  returned  and  enjoyed  the  comforts  and 
warmth  at  home.  He  had  taken  cold  from  being 
subjected  to  the  draughts  of  cold  air  in  the  hotel.  He 
looked  and  felt  badly,  but  very  soon  gained  in  ap 
pearance  and  health.  On  the  2ist  of  September  he 
left  for  Detroit,  to  bring  our  daughter  home.  She 
had  gone  from  Utica  to  Detroit  with  her  friend  to 
pass  some  time  with  her  there.  On  their  return  they 
stopped  at  Niagara  for  one  day  and  night.  The 
weather  had  changed  and  become  very  cold.  He 
again  took  cold,  which  settled  in  his  back  causing  lum 
bago,  from  which  he  suffered  for  some  time  after  his 
return.  He  remained  for  two  days  in  bed,  and  it 
seemed  to  have  almost  left  him,  and  more  from  pru 
dence,  and  to  satisfy  [his  family]  he  remained  in  his 
room  for  at  least  ten  days.  The  doctor  prescribed 


10 


ANDREW  ATKINSON  HUMPHREYS. 


the  electric  battery,  which    certainly   relieved    him.  I 
Frcm  that  time  he   appeared  as  well   as  he  usually  [ 
did,    but    would   say  repeatedly  :     '  I  do  not  know 
why   I  should  feel  so  weak ;  but  when  the  spring  j 
comes  I  will  ride  on  horseback,  and  will  live  more  j 
in  the  open  air.     There  were  two  things  which  his  i 
family  noticed,  and  which  caused  them  some  anxiety ;  j 
but  as  he  seemed  so  well  and  so  bright,  and  en-  I 
joyed  his  meals,  eating  more  than  he  generally  had  j 
done,  they  dismissed  the  anxiety,  thinking  it  was  only  j 
my  undue  solicitude.     They  were   these  :     First,  I  j 
noticed  at  times  a  flushing  of  the  face.     This  was  un-  | 
usual,  for  he  was  generally  pale.     Other  persons,  it 
seemed,  had  noticed  an  extreme  pallor.     The  second  j 
thing  was,  he  appeared  to  find  the  heat  of  the  room  j 
oppressive,  and   would  shut  off  the  registers,  would  j 
find  his  clothes  oppressive  and  would  be  constantly  j 
changing  them  for  lighter  ones,  so  that  it  was  re-  ; 
marked  to  him  that  his  temperament  was  certainly 
changing.      All   this   was    a    very   decided   change, 
and  one  which  did  cause  anxiety,  by  which  is  meant  j 
that  age  at  last  was  making  its  changes      The  weather  ' 
previous  to  that  terrible  nigjht  had  been  for  three  or  , 
four  days  very  cold  and  disagreeable,  rainy,  damp,  ; 
penetrating,  so  that  he    did  not  go  out — saying,  '  I 
feel  tired,  and  it  is  so  disagreeable    I  think   I   will 
lie    down   and    not  go    out,'    which  he    had  done. 
That  afternoon,  the  27th  [December,  1883,]  he  came 
from  his  office  to  sit  with  my  daughter  and  myself,  \ 
coming  about  4  o'clock,  saying,  '  I  have  the  lumbago 
again  !'  suggested  applying   the    battery,  which  was  j 
done  at  5  o'clock.     He  did  not  feel  it  as  actively  as  I 
he    had  heretofore    done,  so   that   we    increased   its 
strength,  but  although  feeling  it  more,  it  was  not  as 
actively  felt  as  heretofore,  but  he  said  '  it  had  made  ! 
him  feel  better.'     It  was  then  nearly  6  o'clock,  our 
dinner  hour.     The  family  went  to  dinner,  which  was  ! 
enjoyed  much.     The  evening  was  passed  in  the  par 
lor,  as  usual,  reading  papers^  etc.,  and  conversing  also,  | 
when  about  a  quarter  past   10  o'clock  we  finally  left  j 
him  looking  over  a  pictorial  magazine,   which  was  j 
rather  amusing.     I  remarked  as  I  left  him  :  « I  have 
opened  all  the  registers;'  to  which  he  replied  :  «  Very 
well.'     He  generally  followed  us  up  stairs  in  about 
five  or  ten  minutes.     Finding  he  did  not  come  after 
some  time,  the  family  felt  very  much  disposed  to  call 
him,   telling   him   that   he  would   become    so  wide 
awake    if  he    read  much  longer   that   he  would    not 
sleep,  but  refrained  from  doing  so,  thinking  it  might 
annoy  him.     At  a  quarter  of  II  o'clock  the  servant  | 
came  up  to  say  the  General  was  asleep  in  the  parlor ;  j 
should  she  wake  him?     The  reply  was:  'Certainly, 
wake  him.'     A  scream  from  the  one  who  remained 
down  stairs  to  waken  him,  soon  took  me  to  him,  to 
find,  alas,  that  he  was  no  longer  living.     The  head  ' 
rested  on  the  back  of  the   chair  (a  large  chair),  the  j 
paper  had  fallen   to  the  floor.     The  glass  (a   small  j 
magnifying  one)  was  still  held  in  his  hand,  both  hands 
resting  on  his  knees.     There  was  no  trace  of  pain ; 
there  had  been  no  sound,  no  call,  for  it  must  have  | 
been  heard,  for  all  the  doors  were  open.     He  simply  ! 


fell  asleep,  without  knowing  that  he  had  done  so.  As 
all  warmth  had  fled,  I  suppose  had  we  remained  five 
minutes  longer  with  him  we  should  have  known  or 
been  with  him  when  it  occurred.  I  gave  instantly,  as 
soon  as  I  could  collect  my  thoughts,  brandy — mus 
tard — but,  of  course,  of  no  avail.  The  spirit  had  fled. 
The  servant  went  instantly  for  the  doctor,  who  soon 
arrived,  but  all  had  been  over  for  some  time.  He 
told  my  son  afterward,  'the  heart  was  worn  out  and 
had  simply  stopped  beating,'  " 

A  Scotch  essayist,  whose  extensive  reading 
and  interesting  articles  in  connection  with 
the  military  past,  and  especially  biography, 
make  his  opinions  valuable,  commenting  on 
the  life  and  character  of  Humphreys,  re 
marked :  "General  Humphreys  must  in 
deed  have  been  a  loss  to  the  country  and  to 
his  friends.  I  was  looking  at  a  biography 
of  Skoboleff,  translated  from  the  Russian, 
and  it  struck  me  that  there  was  a  certain  re 
semblance  between  them."  Such  undoubt 
edly  was  the  case.  Humphreys  was  in  all  but 
dandyism  or  display,  the  mannerism  or 
phantasmagoria  of  war,  the  Skoboleff  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac — the  Russian  in  all 
his  grandest  characteristics,  without  any  of 
those  qualities,  which,  like  over-ornamenta 
tion  in  any  structure,  detract  from,  rather 
than  add  to,  a  truly  great  man.  To  Hum 
phreys  may  be  applied  emphatically  the  fine 
and  pointed  remark  of  Sallust  concerning 
Jugurtha  :  "  He  was,  indeed,  both  brave  in 
action  and  wise  in  council;  qualities  very 
seldom  united  in  the  same  person ;  precaution 
being  generally  accompanied  with  timidity 
and  courage  with  rashness." 

O'er  his  dear  corpse  a  pyramid  shall  rise, 

Each  stone  a  deed  of  duty  bravely  done  : 
Vast  in  its  height  and  tiers  of  massive  size, 

Fnchas'd  with  wreaths  in  battle  nobly  won, 
Capped  with  the  cone,  his  science  none  denies — 

Pure  in  its  casing,  brilliant  in  the  sun. 
Duty  his  motto :  not  what  in  men's  eyes 

Glitters  deceptive,  glory,  rarely  won 
By  honest  merit ;  as  a  rule  the  prize 

Of  charlatans,  in  courtier  arts  begun. 
He  served  his  country — there  his  merit  lies — 

From  youth  to  age — like  Barca's  famous  son.* 

•Hannibal. 

J.  WATTS  DE  PEYSTER, 

Brev.  Major  General,  S.  N.  Y. 

Honorary  member  of  Diagnothian  Literary  Society 
of  Franklin  and  Marshall  College,  Lancaster,  Pa. 


ANDREW  ATKINSON  HUMPHREYS. 


PART    SECOND. 

MILITARY  SERVICES  DURING  THE  "SLAVEHOLDERS'  REBELLION." 


TAKEN   DURING  T 


"  AN  Utility   General."      "  The  best  of  them  all, 
after  all."     "  The  only  engineer  officer  who  had   go 
not   think    all    the    time  of 


ahead   in   him  and    did 
digging." — A  Veteran 
World. 


out  of  the  "Slaveholders'  Rebellion"  the 
story  of  his  Military  Service  follows  the 
same  course  as  that  of  a  majority  of  our 
regular  officers.  The  only  fighting  that  he 
saw  previous  to  the  "  Great  American  Con 
flict  "  was  in  the  miserably  mismanaged 
Seminole  War  in  1836.  Of  suffering  he 
underwent  a  sufficiency.  Disgusted,  he  re 
signed  3oth  September,  1836.  For  about 
two  years  he  was  a  Civil  Engineer  in  the  U. 
S.  service.  On  the  yth  July,  1838,  he  was 
re-appointed  in  the  U.  S.  Army  as  ist 
Lieutenant  in  the  corps  of  Topographical 
Engineers.  Of  the  next  twenty-three  years 
each  one  was  illustrated  by  some  distin 
guished  engineering  achievement  which  won 
for  him  a  reputation  at  home  only  exceeded 
by  that  which  he  acquired  abroad. 

When  the  "Slaveholders'  Rebellion" 
broke  out  he  was  viewed  with  disfavor  by 
the  administration.  He  had  been  very  inti 
mate  with  the  rebel  president,  Jefferson  Davis, 
and  others  who  rose  to  high  political  and 
military  positions  at  the  South.  The  same 


leer  of  the  A  ew  and  Old  \  absurd   suspicion   which    militated    against 
I  George  H.  Thomas  on  account  of  his  hav- 
You  have  always  told  me  truth— truth  I  could  j  ing  been  born  in  Virginia,  was  even  more 


not  obtain  through  any  other  channel." — Emperor 
Alexander  to  Gen.  Sir  Robert  Wilson,  1812. 

"  If  not  in  Poetry,  at  least  in  Fact, 

And  FACT  is  TRUTH,  the  great  desideratum." 

"  All  that  a  citizen  could  be  I  was  ; 
Raised  by  thy  [his  country's]  will,  all  thine  in  Peace 
and  War."  — Byron. 

"  More   moderate    gifts  might  have    prolonged  his 
date." 

"  I'd  show  you 

How  easy  'tis  to  die  by  my  example, 

And  hansel  Fate  before  you."  — Dry  den. 

General  Humphreys  was  born  2d  Novem 
ber,  1810,  and  was  graduated  at  the  U.  S 
Military  Academy,  West  Point,  ist  July, 
1831.  From  that  date  until  the  breaking 


injurious  to  Humphreys  on  account  of  his 
previous  social  relations  which  in  a  great 
measure  grew  naturally  out  of  his  long  term 
of  engineering  duties  at  the  South.  Even 
his  astonishing  feat  of  arms,  his  intrepidity 
and  devotion  at  Fredericksburg,  i3th  De 
cember,  1862,  did  not  relieve  him  from  the 
odium  of  his  prior  accidental  intimacies.  It 
was  not  until  he  had  again  shown  his  super 
lative  patriotism  and  manifested  his  hold  upon 
his  troops  and  his  power  of  handling  them  upon 
the  battle-field,  to  the  admiration  of  the  whole 
army,  at  Gettysburg,  that  he  was  made  a 
Major  General  of  Volunteers,  8th  July, 
1863.  At  that  time  he  was  outranked  by 
officers  of  whom  the  great  majority  were 


12 


ANDREW  ATKINSON  HUMPHREYS. 


not  only  vastly  inferior  to  him  in  every 
characteristic  of  a  great  soldier,  but  as  in 
capable  as  the  politicians  of  entertaining 
even  the  faintest  estimate  of  his  abilities. 

Resuming  in  proper  order  his  rise  in  active 
service,  he  was,  as  late  as  the  5th  March,  1862, 
simply  a  Major  of  Topographical  Engineers 
on  the  staff  of  the  General-in-Chief, — that  is 
even  seven  months  after  the  first  battle  of 
Bull  Run,  when  the  impending  perils  of  the 
country  had  developed  themselves  in  all 
their  vastness  and  when  thousands  of  men 
with  neither  experience,  capacity  nor  prepa 
ration  were  permitted  to  assume  far  more 
important  duties  than  were  entrusted  to 
Humphreys.  He  accompanied  McClellan 
to  the  Peninsula  as  Chief  Topographical  En 
gineer  with  the  rank  of  Colonel,  and  it  was 
only  on  the  28th  April,  1862.  he  became 
Brigadier  General  of  Volunteers.  He  was 
opposed  to  the  "round-about  raid;"  the 
James  river  plan  of  McClellan,  and  is 
known  to  have  urged  the  Urbanna  route,  so 
styled,  if  such  a  course  was  to  be  pursued. 
To  those  who  have  no  maps  it  might  be  well 
to  state  that  Urbanna  is  on  the  south  bank 
of  the  Rappahannock,  near  its  mouth.  It 
is  hard  to  perceive  its  advantages  in  the 
light  of  our  present  knowledge,  but  with 
such  a  magnificent  army  as  McClellan  com 
manded,  the  overland  route  was  the  best,  if 
the  campaign  had  commenced  when  it 
should  have  begun  during  the  good  weather 
of  the  Fall  of  1862.  With  a  leader  of  Mc 
Clellan' s  views  any  route  was  perhaps  of 
equal  advantage.  Humphreys  was  a  fighter 
with  the  same  texture  of  thought  and  mode  of 
action  as  Anthony  Wayne.  Would  that  there 
had  been  more  like  him  ! 

He  first  shone  on  Malvern  Hill.  The 
posting  of  our  troops  on  that  field,  ist  July, 
1863,  was,  as  a  whole,  entrusted  to  Hum 
phreys  and  the  duty  was  well  performed. 
There  the  army  gained  a  grand  victory  which 
its  leader  threw  away ;  without  any  fault  of  his 
"  Sergeant-Major  of  Battle  "  who  had  dis 
posed  and  arranged  the  majority  of  the 
troops.  The  posting  of  the  minority  by  an 
other  cost  unnecessary  fighting. 

Just  previous  to  Antietam,  Humphreys 
was  transferred  from  staff  duty  to  the  com 
mand  of  a  division  of  new  troops  at  Wash 
ington,  a  change  he  had  long  and  ardently 
desired.  With  these,  on  the  night  prior  to 
the  battle,  iyth  September,  1862,  he  made  a 
forced  march,  remarkable  for  its  energy  and 
expedition,  spurred  by  the  lively  hope  of 
being  up  in  time  to  participate  in  the  great 
battle  impending.  With  all  his  ardor  and 


alacrity  he  was  too  late  ;  no  fault  of  his.  On 
the  i6th  and  zyth  October  he  made  a  recon- 
noissance  up  the  Shenandoah  Valley  to 
Kerneysville,  Leetown  and  Smithfield,  which 
was  one  of  the  most  remarkably  effective  of 
the  war.  For  this  he  was  highly  praised. 

The  fighting  had  then  been  going  on 
East,  West,  or  South,  almost  continuously 
for  over  nineteen  months,  and  Humphreys 
had  had  no  chance.  He  was  now  to  have 
an  opportunity  to  exhibit  himself  in  the  full 
splendor  of  his  courage  and  leadership,  and 
he  improved  it.  With  the  Third  division  of 
the  Fifth  corps,  he  was  ordered  to  storm  the 
Rebel  fortifications  and  position  at  Marye's 
Heights.  It  is  said  that  "in  war  and  poli 
tics  peril  is  the  twin  of  security."  In  this 
case  the  maxim  was  to  prove  fallacious.  To 
anything  but  Fortune,  favoring  extraordinary 
valor,  the  Rebel  positions  were  impregnable. 
The  valor  was  displayed,  but  Fortune  did  not 
smile  even  faintly ;  she  rather  frowned  dark 
ly.  This  was  on  the  evening  of  the  First 
Battle  of  Fredericksburg,  i3th  December, 
1862.  The  first  attempt  was  made  by 
French  with  the  Third  Division  of  the 
Second  Corps.  It  was  equivalent  to  the 
effort  of  a  Forlorn  Hope  on  a  very  large 
scale.  French  carried  his  front  to  within 
about  100  feet  of  the  Ha  !  Ha!  stone-wall 
which  served  as  a  scarp  to  the  Rebel  line  of 
defence.  He  had  to  fall  back,  leaving  behind 
him  about  half  his  command.  Hancock, 
with  the  First  Division,  Second  Corps,  re 
peated  the  mad  adventure.  He,  too,  was 
driven  back,  having  sacrificed  about  two- 
fifths  of  his  effectives  in  .that  "evil  quarter 
of  an  hour."  He  had  the  trifling  consola 
tion  that  his  dead  and  wounded  lay  some  25 
or  30  feet  nearer  to  the  enemy  than  those  of 
French. 

Then  Humphreys  was  put  in.  His  division, 
like  the  third  breaker  upon  a  beach,  left  its 
traces  of  blood  and  wrecks  a  few  paces  fur 
ther  on,  and  nearer  to  the  enemy  than  the 
preceding  two,  lingered  longer,  strove  harder 
to  maintain  itself  so  far,  and  to  accomplish 
the  impossible.  Finally  it  withdrew,  sing 
ing  in  chorus,  to  show  that  although  shat 
tered  physically,  morally  its  spirits  were  un 
shaken.  His  charge  will  yet  be  blazoned 
forth  in  history  as  one  of  the  noblest  efforts 
of  Northern  resolution,  or,  as  he  expressed 
it,  one  of  Kearny's  exhibitions  of  valor 
"  magnificent." 

"Two  horses  were  shot  under  the  intrepid  leader 
[Humphreys],  who  hastily  mounted  a  third,  and  con 
tinued  to  ride  about  amid  the  rain  of  missiles,  bear 
ing  a  charmed  life ;  his  clothing  was  pierced  and  rent, 


ANDREW  ATKINSON  HUMPHREYS. 


13 


but  his  person  was  unhurt.  Every  officer  of  his  staff 
but  one,  his  son,  was  dismounted,  and  his  horse  was 
badly  wounded.  In  vain  Humphreys  endeavored  to 
halt  his  men  as  they  turned  slowly  backward.  In  vain 
did  he  endeavor  to  remedy  the  disorder  occasioned 
by  the  troops  lying  down  whom  [the  divisions  pre 
viously  put  in]  he  had  been  sent  to  support;  in  vain 
did  he  endeavor  to  induce  them  to  rise  and  join  in 
the  charge,  and  with  some  bitterness  he  subsequently 
wrote  that  had  they  been  "withdrawn  before  he'  moved 
forward  a  different  restilt  "would  have  folloTved. 
f^jlj1*  Indeed,  so  near  was  he  to  carrying  the  wall  and 
heights  that  the  enemy  were  actually  moving  their 
guns  out  of  the  batteries,  and  on  the  right  they  were 
beginning  to  quit  the  wall^"^^^, — Letter  of  Humph 
reys  to  William  Swinton,  May  10,  1866,  ut  stipra. 

While  this  slaughter  was  going  on,  the 
Rebels,  perfectly  sheltered,  were  heard  to  cry 
out,  "  Come  on,  Yanks  ;  if  you  don't  mind 
it,  it  doesn't  hurt  us."  Afterwards  on  the 
second  day  of  Gettysburg,  the  Rebels  assault 
ing  on  the  Union  right  near  the  cemetery, 
exclaimed,  "  The  Yanks  have  got  us  this 
time ;  this  is  like  their  hopeless  charge  on 
Marye's  Heights  at  Fredericksburg. " 

Here  it  is  impossible  to  refrain  from  a  few 
observations.  The  European  world  sounds 
and  re-sounds,  echoes  and  re-echoes  with 
plaudits  for  the  Rebel  grand  charge  on  the 
third  day  of  Gettysburg.  Such  excessive, 
applause  is  unjust  to  many  similar  exhibitions 
of  Union  determination.  The  assaults  of 
French  and  of  Hancock,  but  particularly  of 
HUMPHREYS,  were  much  more  desperately 
brilliant ;  likewise  the  Union  assault  by  the 
troops  of  Thomas  on  Bragg' s  centre  on 
Mission  Ridge  at  Chattanooga ;  likewise  the 
capture  of  the  Rebel  bridge-head  at  Rappa- 
hannock  Station ;  likewise  the  triumphant 
storm  at  the  Spottsylvania  Death  Angle, 
which  by  writers  generally  is  attributed  to 
the  effects  of  a  surprise,  whereas  the  Rebel 
General,  Johnson,  "  states  emphatically  that 'he 
was  not  surprised,  that  his  division  was  ready 
in  the  trenches  before  the  assaulting  force 
made  it  appearance,"  cScc.  (Humphreys,  95.) 
If  time  and  space  permitted,  example  might 
be  added  to  example.  What  is  more,  the 
Rebel  assault  in  dense  column  upon  the 
Union  batteries  at  Charles  City  Cross  Roads, 
2 Qth  June,  1862,  and  upon  the  Union  works 
at  Corinth,  were  fully  as  fine  exhibitions  of 
pluck  as  that  of  Pickett's  division.  Foreign 
applause  for  the  Rebels  is  all  well  enough. 
Emperors,  kings,  kinglings,  and  aristocracy 
abroad  hated  us  because  they  were  greedily 
looking  forward  to  our  ruin.  To  them  the 
Northerners  were  "Mud-sills"  and  the 
Southerners  "chivalry."  The  glamour  of 
this  factitious  renown  is  due  in  a  great  meas 
ure  to  the  first  important  history  that  ap 
peared,  which  purported,  by  title,  to  be 


one  thing  and  in  spirit  was  another  thing, 
altogether.  Then  comes  in  that  inexplica 
ble  subserviency  to  Southern  assumption. 
Why  should  the  North  glorify  the  South 
that  never  glorifies  it?  It  is  very  doubtful  if 
there  was  ever  a  man  born  South  under  the 
influence  of  slavery — that  is,  one  who  could 
stand  it  and  stay  there  and  not  come  out  of 
it — who  could  ever  perceive  the  truth  (that  is 
"our  rights,"  without  regard  to  the  rights  of 
others),  through  the  atmosphere  of  his  inter 
ests,  his  prejudices  and  his  passions,  or  do 
justice  to  the  North  when  it  clashed  with 
them.  Let  us  hurrah  for  our  own  people 
and  applaud  their  greatness  and  goodness, 
and  let  the  South  hurrah  for  themselves. 
Judging  from  the  past  they  will  do  enough 
of  it.  While  I  live  I  will  avouch  that  our 
people  behaved  as  bravely  and  accomplished 
as  much  as  'any  people  under  similar  circuin- 
stances  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

At  Chancellorsville,  24th  May,  1863, 
Humphreys,  with  his  Third  Division,  Fifth 
Corps,  held  the  extreme  left  of  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac  under,  or  rather  with,  Hooker. 
His  duty  was  simply  that  which  Milton  de 
scribes  in  the  famous  line  of  his  sonnet  XIX 
on  his  blindness  : 

"  They  also  serve  who  only  stand  and  wait." 

Humphreys  realized  a  great  many  of  Mil 
ton's  truisms  that  day. 

"  The  paradise  of  fools  to  few  unknown." 

"  My  sentence  is  for  open  war." 

"The  hell  within  him;" 

"All  hell  broke  loose."   [On  our  right]. 

He  often  related  how  he  suffered  for  want  of 
food  (in  the  Wilderness  at  Chancellorsville), 
and  how  delicious  something  tasted  which 
turned  up  at  the  right  moment.  That  he 
did  not  do  something  "elegant "  was  no  fault 
of  his,  but  of  his  immediate  superiors  and 
the  generals  in  chief  command.  If  ever  op 
portunities  were  wasted  it  was  on  this  field 
Firstly  Friday,  April  3oth,  p.  M.,  when  the 
Fifth  Corps  pushed  forward  almost  to  Bank's 
Ford.  The  withdrawal  of  our  troops  on  that 
day  was  one  of  the  mistakes  in  war  which  seem 
utterly  inexplicable.  It  was  actually  worse 
than  neutralizing  the  brilliant  results  of  the 
preceding  magnificent  initiative.  Another 
chance  lost  was  when  Stuart  advanced  to 
attack  Sickles  at  Hazel  Grove  and  openly 
and  persistently  exposed  his  right  flank  to 
Meade  and  Reynolds.  Mars  and  Bellona, 
god  and  goddess  of  war  !  What  a  chance 
was  there  for  the  Fifth  and  First  Corps  ! 
Webb,  with  Meade,  saw  it  and  groaned  over 
it  then  and  since.  Again,  when  Sedgwick 
had  advanced  to  Salem  Church, 'why  was  he 


14 


ANDREW  ATKINSON  HUMPHREYS. 


not  reinforced  or  supported  by  attacks  else 
where  ?  Oh  !  Oh  !  Oh  !  and  all  these  corps 
commanders  are  held  by  the  people  as  great 
generals. 

Humphrey  was  very  severe  on  Hooker. 
I  never  agreed  with  him  in  the  extent  of 
his  condemnation.  After  Hooker  was 
knocked  over  senseless,  those  next  in  rank 
were  as  much,  if  not  more,  to  blame. 

The  judgment  of  the  world  has  been  very 
cruel  upon  Hooker.  Sir  Robert  Wilson, 
Bart,  in  his  "  Narrative  of  Events  during 
the  Invasion  of  Russia  "  by  Napoleon  Bona 
parte,  (1812,)  whom  he  detested,  is  much 
more  generous.  Speaking  of  the  "Action 
before  Loubino,"  August,  1812,  (page  96) 
he  observes  :  "  The  French  historians  affirm 
that  Napoleon  himself  was  not  on  this  occa 
sion  so  stirring,  decided,  and  judicious  as 
usual ;  but  genius,  and  aspirations  which  cre 
ate  and  feed  the  excitement  of  the  hero  as  well 
as  of  the  poet,  must  occasionally  slumber,  for 
they  animate  but  a  mortal  frame,  subject  to 
lassitude,  internal  derangement,  and  decay. ' ' 
As  Lieut.  Gen.  Sir  Robert  Wilson,  B.  A., 
said  of  Barclay  de  Tolly,  in  1812,  "He was 
a  brave  soldier  and  a  good  officer,  but  not  a 
captain  with  a  master-mind  equal  to  the  need. ' ' 
Most  true  and  sympathetically  manly. 

The  march  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
from  Chancellorsville  to  Gettysburg  in  June, 
1863,  was  one  of  the  most  severe  which  it 
was  ever  called  upon  to  make.  It  fell  with 
extra  severity  upon  the  Third  Corps,  to 
which  Humphreys  had  been  transferred 
after  the  former  battle  and  upon  the  division 
to  which  he  had  been  assigned.  He  now 
commanded  the  Second  Division  in  place  of 
the  gallant  Berry,  killed  on  the  2d  May. 
There  are  some  very  curious,  nay  interesting, 
if  not  romantic,  incidents  connected  with 
the  march  of  Humphreys  to  the  field  of 
Gettysburg  on  the  night  of  the  ist  and  2d 
July.  He  actually  got  up,  undiscovered, 
within  a  few  yards  of  batteries  on  the  left  of 
the  Rebel  army  on  the  ridge  overlooking  the 
Black  Horse  tavern  on  Marsh  Creek.  It  was 
a  moonlight  night.  A  sudden  attack  in  this 
quarter  might  have  inflicted  a  terrible  shock 
upon  Lee.  God  knows  best  and  all  is  for 
the  best.  He  intended  that  the  Rebels 
should  receive  a  crashing  defeat  on  the  en 
suing  days,  whereas  a  partial  night  attack 
might  have  simply  compelled  the  Rebels  to 
shift  their  battle-ground — have  "  tumbled 
them  out  "  of  a  weak  into  a  strong  position. 
Within  24  hours  they  were  reinforced  with 
their  best  troops.  Then,  if  a  battle  was  to 
occur,  Meade  might  have  had  to  attack,  and 


all  the  advantages  would  have  been  with  the 
Rebels.  In  the  development  of  the  inevita 
ble  decree  of  God,  it  seemed  as  if  the  war 
was  to  be  protracted  until  the  veterans  of 
Rebeldom  were  destroyed  and  its  power  for 
mischief  ended — until  "the  cradle  and  the 
grave  ' '  were  robbed  of  their  last  available 
"  food  for  the  cannon,"  just  as  there  was  no 
hope  of  peace  for  Europe,  until  the  "hordes 
of  disciplined  savages"  with  which  the  ac 
cursed  despot  Napoleon  had  made  his  wars, 
maintained  war,  had  perished  in  Russia. 
The  miracles  of  the  Supreme  Ruler  always 
appear  to  have  been  effected  by  law,  through 
natural  means,  and  though  "  His  mills 
grind  slowly,"  they  eventually  "  grind  ex 
ceedingly  small."  In  assaulting  as  he  did, 
but  particularly:  on  the  3rd,  Lee  seemed  to 
have  become  insane  and  "whom  the  gods 
would  destroy  they  first  make  mad." 

However,  this  is  not  a  regular  military 
criticism,  and  speculation  upon  the  "  ifs  " 
and  the  "whys"  is  without  utility  here. 
Humphreys  was  a  "  duty  man."  Undiscov 
ered,  in  obedience  to  precise  orders,  he  re 
traced  his  steps  and  countermarched  to  take 
up  a  position  on  the  left  of  the  Union  Army, 
where  he  was  to  assist  in  the  great  battle  of 
next  day,  2nd  July,  THE  DAY,  on  which  he 
played  so  distinguished  a  part. 

In  regard  to  Gettysburg,  General  Hum 
phreys,  in  his  Address  at  the  Meade  Memo 
rial  Meeting,  Philadelphia,  i8th  November, 
1872,  makes  this  criticism  :  "You  all  know 
how  the  battle  on  the  second  day  went  on, 
and  that  the  hat dest  fighting  of  the  three  days 
of  battle  took  place  on  it,  [especially  that  done 
by  Humphreys'  division].  Lee  attacked  our 
left  with  Longstreet's  corps  and  part  of 
Hill's,  under  the  cover  of  woods  which  con 
cealed  their  approach,  and  a  long-continued, 
desperate  struggle  ensued,  lasting  from  half- 
past  four  until  seven  o'clock,  in  which  we 
lost  the  advanced  part  of  the  ground  we  had 
taken  up ;  but  the  main  position  remained 
intact." 

It  was  this  same  battle  drew  from  Hum 
phreys'  pen  the  following  remarks,  in  the  same 
address,  which  develop  fully  how  strong  in 
him  were  the  instincts  of  a  warrior  :  "Of  all 
the  sublime  sights  within  the  view  and  com 
prehension  of  man,  the  grandest,  the  most 
sublime  is  a  great  battle.  Its  sights  and 
sounds  arouse  a  feeling  of  exaltation,  com 
pared  to  which,  tame  indeed  is  the  sense  of 
the  sublime  excited  by  all  other  great  works, 
either  of  God  or  man.  No  grander  sight  was 
seen  throughout  the  war  than  this  great  bat- 


ANDREW  ATKINSON  HUMPHREYS. 


15- 


tie  between  two  brave,  well  disciplined  and 
ably  commanded  armies." 

Before  quitting  the  subject  of  Gettysburg, 
it  may  be  justifiable  to  remark  that  I  do  not 
believe  that  any  one  living  outside  of  his 
own  family  was  more  intimate  with  Hum 
phreys  than  myself.  Ever  since  the  battle 
there  has  been  a  furious  controversy  between 
the  friends  of  Sickles  and  of  Meade  as  to 
the  action  of  the  former  and  its  influence 
upon  the  result.  No  expression,  to  remem 
brance,  ever  fell  from  the  lips  of  Humphreys 
reflecting  upon  Sickles,  and  he  always  re 
marked  that  while  he  was  willing  to  serve 
under  that  officer,  nothing  would  induce 
him  to  remain  in  a  position  subordinate  to 
any  who  were  likely  to  succeed  him,  Birney 
particularly.  Therefore.  Sickles  being  se 
verely  wounded  and  not  likely  to  return, 
although  Humphreys  had  an  intense  desire  to 
remain  in  the  active  command  of  troops,  he 
determined  to  accept  the  position  of  Chief 
of  Staff  to  Meade,  and,  as  such,  he  contin 
ued  with  him  so  long,  because  he  could  not 
get  a  command  such  as  he  thought  due  to 
himself. 

When  Grant  became  Lieutenant-General 
and  assumed  the  immediate  supervision  of 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  the  reduction 
of  the  number  of  the  corps  and  their  consoli 
dation  was  broached,  Humphreys  was  op 
posed  to  it  for  many  reasons,  but  particu 
larly  on  the  same  grounds  for  which  Lee  pre 
ferred  organizations  which  were  equiva 
lent  to  small  corps  in  his  army,  because 
they  were  more  manageable  or  handy, 
and  better  adapted  to  a  wooded  country  like 
Virginia,  where  immediate  command  or 
even  supervision  was  so  difficult  and  limited 
in  extent.  Meade  gave  Humphreys  to  under 
stand  that  even  if  the  corps  were  to  continue 
as  they  were,  small  and  compact,  acclimated 
to  the  severest  service,  annealed,  so  to  speak, 
he,  Humphreys,  would  not  get  one  of  them 
under  any  circumstances.  That  is  the  sole 
reason  that  Humphreys  remained  so  long 
with  Meade  as  Chief  of  Staff.  As  soon  as  he 
could  get  away  he  did  so,  but  it  was  not  until 
24th  November,  1864,  when  he  succeeded 
Hancock  in  the  command  of  the  combined 
Second-Third  Corps.  He  always  gave  me  to 
understand  that  Meade  had  not  done  him 
due  justice ;  that  the  whole  burthen  of  the 
direction,  except  general  expressions,  had 
rested  with  him  for  sixteen  months,  and  the 
people  had  no  idea  of  the  strain  he  had  un 
dergone  or  the  work  he  had  done.  On 
reading  what  might  be  styled  his  Obituary 
Address  upon  Meade,  the  effect  was  aston- 


shment.  All  Meade's  offences  were  con 
doned,  and  when  Humphreys'  two  books 
came  out,  the  astonishment  was  still  greater. 
To  one  who  knew  the  very  inward  workings 
of  the  soul  of  Humphreys  there  was  only  one 
solution.  In  action  he  was  one  of  the  most 
decided  of  men,  and  his  indignation  often 
flamed  up.  On  the  other  hand,  in  calmer  moods 
ic  was  one  of  the  gentlest  of  men — mag 
nanimity  itself.  This  dual  nature  is  the  only 
explanation  of  his  views  as  expressed  at  dif 
ferent  times.  I  know  that  in  one  engage 
ment  an  officer  of  high  rank  behaved  very 
badly.  When  Humphreys  wrote  his  report 
lie  denounced  him  in  the  strongest  lan 
guage.  When  the  report  was  made  public 
everything  severe  had  been  expunged.  On 
another  occasion  an  officer  of  high  rank  dis 
obeyed  him  and  was  immediately  superseded. 
In  his  published  report  there  was  scarcely 
any,  if  any,  reference  to  the  matter.  There 
could  have  been  no  reason  for  this  but  mag 
nanimity,  because  Humphreys  did  not  fear 
the  face  of  clay,  and  it  is  questionable  if  he- 
took  anything  else  into  account. 

During  what  Mr.  Swinton  styles  a  "  Cam-  • 
paign  of  Manoeuvres,"  that  is,  the  operations 
of  the  fall  or  autumn  of  1863  and  winter  of 
1863-64,  Humphreys  must  have  been  bitterly 
exercised  in  soul.  He  always  maintained 
that,  during  this  period  he  had  three  or  four 
chances  to  make  a  splendid  reputation,  and 
that  if  his  plans  had  been  followed  Lee  would 
have  been  severely  handled  if  not  utterly  de 
feated.  In  the  first  case,  Meade  listened  to 
bad  advice,  but  finally  yielded  to  the  coun 
sel  of  Humphreys.  The  latter  issued  orders 
which,  if  they  had  been  followed,  would 
have  enabled  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  to 
deliver  exactly  such  blows  against  the  Army 
of  Northern  Virginia  as  those  which  Napo 
leon  struck  with  such  terrible  success  against 
Blucher's  Army  of  Silesia  at  Champ-Aubert,. 
Montmirail  and  Vaux-Champs,  three  princi 
pal  successes,  but  in  reality  five,  on  the  loth, 
nth  and  12  February,  1814,  and  sent  it 
reeling  and  writhing  and  whirling,  but  still 
struggling  desperately  and  nobly,  back 
whence  it  had  started,  to  Chalons  on  the 
Marne. 

Humphreys  used  to  wring  his  hands  meta 
phorically  in  relating  how  he  had  provided 
against  every  contingency,  and  for  insuring 
success  sent  aides  and  messengers  to  enjoin 
obedience ;  and,  then  at  the  critical  moment 
and  point  on  which  everything  turned,  he  was 
disobeyed  and  failure  followed. 

The  next  occasion  lost  was  at  Mine  Run. 
Humphreys  declared  that  if  he  had  been 


16 


ANDREW  ATKINSON  HUMPHREYS. 


clothed  with  sufficient  power  after  Mine  Run 
he  would  have  shot  those  who  had  been  the 
principal  causes  of  the  failure  of  his  unex 
ceptional  plan  for  the  campaign  or  opera 
tion. 

On  the  third  occasion  Humphreys  was  even 
more  disheartened.  Meade  was  absent. 
Humphreys  had  learned  that  Lee's  forces 
were  very  much  dislocated  and  open  to  sur 
prise.  He  at  once  drew  up  a  plan  which  he 
felt,  if  it  was  instantly  carried  into  execution, 
would  be  glorious  for  the  country,  triumphant 
for  the  army,  and  bring  renown  to  him.  But 
ler  was  to  make  a  simultaneous  movement 
up  the  Peninsula  to  distract  Lee's  attention. 
Humphreys  hastened  to  the  general  who  com 
manded  in  the  absence  of  Meade,  submitted 
his  plans,  with  his  orders  all  digested  and 
prepared  for  the  necessary  movement  of  the 
occasion.  "Wait  till  Meade  gets  back." 
When  Meade  got  back  it  was  too  late. 
"Crushed  again!"  thought  Humphreys,  as 
Lady  Jane  remarks  in  "Patience;"  "crush 
ed  again  !" 

NOTE. — All  just  and  intelligible  allusions  to  this  plan 
of  Humphreys  seem  wanting  in  general  history.  Col. 
Fletcher,  B.  A.,  refers  to  it  as  follows  : 

"  Pending  the  concentration  of  the  great  armies,  an 
attempt  was  made  by  a  coup  de  main  to  obtain  posses 
sion,  if  only  temporary,  of  the  city,  for  whose  capture 
so  many  thousand  lives  had  already  been  sacrificed. 
A  scheme  was  devised  by  which,  whilst  the  attention 
of  General  Lee  was  engaged  in  watching  a  feint  of 
the  army  of  the  Rapidan,  General  Butler,  in  command 
of  the  forces  at  Yorktown,  strengthened  by  reinforce 
ments  from  Charleston,  should  surprise  Richmond, 
release  the  prisoners  confined  in  the  Libby  Prison,  and 
thus,  whilst  settling  the  difficulties  of  the  exchange, 
should  accomplish  a  deed  attempted  in  vain  by  so 
many  able  commanders.  The  expedition,  as  might 
have  been  expected,  failed  ;  on  the  5th  of  February, 
General  Sedgwick,  in  temporary  command  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  made  a  reconnaissance  across 
the  Rapidan  ;  but  finding  the  enemy  well  prepared  to 
receive  him,  returned  after  inflicting  and  sustaining 
some  slight  loss."  History  of  the  American  War,  by 
Lieut. -Colonel  Fletcher;  Scots  Fusilier  Guards,  Vol. 
iii;  Third  and  Fourth  Years  of  the  War  (Concluding 
Volume);  London :  Richard  Bentley,  New  Burlington 
Street.  Published  in  Ordinary  to  her  Majesty,  1866. 
Pages  185-6. 

The  fourth  opportunity  lost  was  when 
Kilpatrick  failed  to  go  into  Richmond, 
Tuesday,  ist  March,  1864.  Humphreys  is 
emphatic  here  in  his  ' '  Gettysburg  to  the 
Rapidan,"  77-78  ;  the  only  force  opposed  to 
him  [Kilpatrick]  was  500  men  with  six  field 
guns,  and  had  he  made  a  determined  charge, 
he  would  have  taken  Richmond  and  accom 
plished  the  object  of  his  expedition,"  not 
least  of  which  was  the  liberation  of  our  dis 
tressed  fellow-citizens,  prisoners  on  that  ac 
cursed  Belle  Island  and  in  Libby.  "  Consid 


ering  the  circumstances  under  which  he  was 
before  Richmond,  it  was  incumbent  upon 
him  [Kilpatrick]  to  have  dismounted  his 
command,  and  to  have  led  it  in  person  in 
an  assault  upon  the  entrenchments." 

It  is  useless  to  attempt  to  go  into  any  de 
tails  of  the  Overland  or  Wilderness  Campaign, 
or  Siege  of  Petersburg,  commencing  3d~5th 
May,  1864.  The  masses  have  elected  to  be 
lieve  that  as  generals,  Alexander,  Hannibal, 
Caesar,  Frederic,  and  even  Napoleon,  were 
fools  to  Grant  and  Lee.  A  great  many  close 
observers,  deep  readers,  and  acute  judges  do 
not  believe  any  such  thing.  Sherman's  ad 
vance  to  Atlanta  was  much  better  managed, 
than  the  "bloody  sap,"  styled  the  Wilder 
ness  campaign ;  but  then  Sherman  had 
Thomas  with  him  (using  the  latter' s  expres- 
ssion  to  me)  "to  serve  as  a  balance-wheel." 

If  anything  was  well  done,  it  was  due  to 
Humphreys'  energy  and  accuracy.  One  of 
the  bravest  and  most  truthful  of  men  at 
tached  to  headquarters,  who  kept  a  diary, 
said  that  Grant  expressed  to  Meade  what  he 
wanted  done  in  the  concisest  terms,  and  this 
Meade  transmitted  to  Humphreys.  Humph 
reys  says  he  drew  up  every  order  for  the 
movements  of  that  vast  army  under  the  most 
difficult  and  aggravating*  circumstances. 
Humphreys  reveals,  reading  between  the  lines, 
that  Lee — overestimated  as  the  man  always 
is — Was  nevertheless  always  beforehand  with 
Grant,  and  more  than  a  match  for  him,  and 
that  Grant  won  all  that  he  did  win  with  a 
prodigal  waste  of  blood  in  which  the  country 
seemed  willing  to  acquiesce,  and  to  have  its 
soldiers  perish  so  that  another  billion  was 
saved.  Moreau  and  Kleber  styled  Napoleon 
"  a  general  at  six  thousand  (or  ten  thousand) 
lives  a  day."  Apply  that  arithmetic  to  the 
Wilderness  Campaign.  People  in  office  dare 
not  speak  out. 

Simplicity  in  war  is  sometimes  sublime, 
but  it  is  not  the  "  sane  fa  simplicitas" — big 
oted  weakness  of  intellect,  as  the  term  was 
used  by  John  Huss  in  regard  to  the  old  wo 
man  who  helped  to  burn  him — and  by  Sir 
Hudson  Lowe  as  to  Napoleon's  movements 
at  Waterloo. 

On  several  questions  General  Humphreys 
and  I  had  long,-often-reapeated  and  very  lively 
discussions.  I  always  held,  and  still  hold", 
that  when  Grant  crossed  the  Rapidan  to  in 
augurate  the  Wilderness  Campaign,  he  ought 


*When  Humphreys'  "  Virginia  Campaign  of  1864-5"  aP- 
peared  he  sent  a  copy  to  Grant,  which  was  never  acknowl 
edged,  and  in  his  "  Personal  Memoirs,"  Grant  (whoscarcely 
mentions  (only  four  times  and  one  paragraph,  1,255-6)  his 
fortune-maker,  Rawlins)  classes  Humphreys  unequally  and 
damns  him  with  the  faintest  praise,  considering  the  ser 
vices  he  rendered. 


ANDREW  ATKINSON  HUMPHREYS. 


17 


to  have  turned  Lee's  position  by  a  flank  move 
ment  to  the  right.     Humphreys  discusses  the 
same  matter  at  pages  9-10  of  his  ''Virginia 
Campaigns  of  '64-' 65."     It  is  impossible  to 
enter   upon    a    critical    discussion    without 
maps,  but  any  map  will  show  the  positions  of 
Gordonsville  and  Charlotteville,  the  import 
ance  of  which  in  regard  to  an  advance  upon 
Richmond,  General  Kearny  saw  in  1861.    It 
is   admitted    that    the    Union    Army   could 
carry  fifteen    days'   supplies   in   its   wagon- 
trains,   and  within  that  space   of  time  how 
many  bloody  battles  were  fought  on  the  other 
line    selected  by  Grant?     At   page    17   the 
strength  of  the  Rebel  army  is  given  at  61,- 
953,  and  at  pages  13-14  Grant's  Army  of  the 
Potomac  given  at  99,438,  besides  the  Ninth 
Corps  which,  de  facto,  belonged  to  it  and  was 
about  22, ooo  men,  (14,  note)  making  an  ag 
gregate  of  say  121,000.     These  were  about 
the    relative    forces    under     Sherman    and 
Thomas,    100,000  ;  and  those  under  John 
ston,  55,000,  on  the  Atlanta  Line,   ist  May, 
1864.     There    the    course   followed,  was  to 
hold  with  a  force  sufficiently  strong  to  be 
able  to  take  care  of  itself,  and  flank  with  a 
force  equally  able  to  take  care  of  itself  on  an 
emergency.     I    have   discussed    this  matter 
with  a  number  of  Regular  officers.     General 
Thomas  told  me  that  if  General  Sherman 
had  allowed  him  instead   of  McPherson  to 
make  the  Snake  Creek  Gap  movement,   yth 
May,  that  campaign  would  have  ended  al 
most  as  soon  as  it  began,  /.  e.,  the  very  next 
day,  with  the  annihilation,  or  rather,  perhaps, 
dispersion  of  Johnston's  army,  and  capture 
of  its  material  of  every  kind.     Humphreys, 
arguing  in  favor  of  Grant,  admits  that    to 
move  by  the  Union  right  flank  would  take 
us    through    a   more   open    and   cultivated 
country,   and  thai  is  just  where  the  Union 
troops  always  had  the  Rebels.      Moving  by 
the  Union  left  was  plunging  into  the  Wild 
erness,  literally,  and  there  we  lost  all  the  ad 
vantages  of  our  numbers  and  gave  every  ad 
vantage  to  the  enemy.     Turn  to  the  battle- 
plans  of  Hohenlinden,  and  there  is  an  ana 
logous  case.     Moreau's  lieutenants,  especial 
ly  Richepanse,    struck  the    Austrians    very 
much  as  the  Rebels  struck  Grant.    Again,  in 
the  course  of  the   operations  of  the   loth, 
nth,    1 2th  February,   already    alluded    to 
which   redeemed    Napoleon's   madness  anc 
blunders  in   1814,   the  very  same  strategy 
grand  tactics  and  tactics  which  inflicted  such 
terrible  losses  on  the  Army  of  Silesia  were 
similar  to  Lee's  principles  of  action  at  the 
beginning  of   the   Wilderness   fights.     The 
movement   by  our  right  would  have   been 


icross  the  shallower  and  narrower  headwaters 
>f  the  streams  which  proved  such  obstruc- 
ions  on  the  other  line,  nor  was  the  country 
filled  in  that  direction  with  defensive  works, 
f  Lee,  alarmed,  did  not  stand  fast  to  fight  a 
battle,  but  fell  back  on  Richmond,  the  dis- 
ance  between  the  Rapidan  on  our  right  was 
not  greater  than  from  Fredericksburg  on  our 
eft.     If   Lee  accepted   battle    immediately 
oward  Charlotteville,  as  he  did  in  the  Wild 
erness,  fifteen  days'  supplies  were  amply  suf 
ficient  for   our   army.     There   are   a   great 
many  who  think  that  the  Wilderness  cam 
paign  was  a  blunder,  a  bloody  blunder,  and 
t  looked  very  much  like  it,  and  the  more  it 
s  examined  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events, 
the   more- so  it  appears.     Reading  Humph 
reys'  book  between  the  lines,  the  text  makes 
the  fact  absolutely  clear  that  Lee  saw  through 
rant's  moves,  and  was  always  up  in  time,  if 
not  beforehand,  with  him.     We  did  a  bril- 
Liant  thing  at  the  Spottsylvania  death-angle, 
Because  there  were  grounds  somewhat  open. 
It  would  have  been  altogether  more  open  on 
the  right  flank  route,  and   the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  always  had  the  Rebels  sure,  when 
they  caught  them  in  the  open.     With  Rebel 
assumption  of  their  superiority  to  the  Union 
troops  in  fighting  qualities,  there  is  hardly  a 
doubt  that  Lee  would  have  given  or  accepted 
battle.     If  he  had  hesitated  his  Hotspurs  and 
"yellow-jackets"  would  have  pressed  it.     In 
fact,     Humphreys    publicly   declared     i8th 
November,    1872,  it  was  the  conviction  of 
the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  that  it  could 
beat  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  wherever  it 
found  it.     In  a  pitched  battle,   immediately, 
and  in  an  open  country,  with  Grant  in  com 
mand,  who   would  have  fought  it  out  to  the 
bitter  end,  superiority  of  numbers  and  artil 
lery  must  have  told,  and  all  things  being  equal 
then  and  there  would  have  ended  the  exis 
tence  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia. 

I  have  heard  able  and  patriotic  Regular 
generals  who  had  been  severely  under  fire, 
criticise  that  campaign  in  a  way  that  would 
have  done  good  to  the  heart  of  any  real  mil 
itary  critic  like  the  Archduke  Charles,  von 
Bulow,  or  Jomini.  The  real  manipulation 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  as  far  as  de 
pended  on  the  reduction  of  orders  for  sixteen 
months,  must  be  credited  to  Humphreys. 
As  far  as  healthily  digested  orders  influence, 
all  the  credit  was  his. 

Before  Petersburg  the  combined  2d-3d 
Corps,  whether  under  Hancock  or  Birney, 
as  the  policemen  sing  in  the  "  Pirates  of  Pen- 
zance, "  "  did  not  have  a  happy  time. ' '  They 
did  have  a  happy  time  after  Humphreys  took 


18 


ANDREW  ATKINSON  HUMPHREYS. 


command,  and  afterwards  they  were  a  very 
strong  quantity  in  the  equation  which  set 
tled  the  fate  of  Lee.  The  inside  story  of 
the  "how"  and  the  "why"  and  the 
"when"  of  the  "  VENIT  SUMMA  DIES"  of 
the  evacuation  of  Petersburg  and  the  cap 
ture  of  Richmond  has  never  been  told. 
Seli-interest  and  moral  timidity  keep  a  great 
many  mouths  shut  and  pens  in  the  racks. 

In  turning  of  key  which  opened  the 
Rebel  lock  in  the  direction  of  Five  Forks, 
that  is  on  our  left,  Humphreys  exerted 
strength  and  ability.  He  saw  clearly  what 
•ought  to  be  done.  So  did  Sheridan,  who  has 
a  mighty  clear  head,  and  not  only  knows  how 
to  deliver  a  body-blow,  but  is  one  who  can 
put  it  in  with  terrible  effect. 

Once  launched  in  pursuit  of  Lee,  Hum 
phreys  played  the  most  important  part.  Be 
tween  the  24th  November,  1864,  and  the  9th 
April,  1865,  about  four  and  one-half  months, 
was  all  the  time  that  was  accorded  to  Hum 
phreys  while  he  was  Corps  Commander  to 
show  to  the  world  what  was  in  him,  and  in 
this  short  time  he  proved  that  it  was.  Yes, 
perhaps  all  that  was  necessary  to  exhibit  his 
perfect  capacity  for  command  of  troops  was 
the  last  two  weeks  of  the  fighting.  Napoleon 
made  Generals,  Princes  and  Marshals  for  less 
than  Humphreys  accomplished  during  that 
short  period. 

As  Parton  says,  with  by  far  less  reason 
{127)  of  Aaron  Burr,  was  eminently  true  of 
Humphreys:  "If  he  had  been  as  much  in 
the  eye  of  Napoleon  as  he  was  in  Washing 
ton's,  the  Emperor  would  have  made  a 
Marshal  of  him,  and  he  would  have  shared 
with  Napoleon  his  splendid  immortality." 

High-for-Newton  as  regards  its  object. 
Let  us  look  into  it,  however,  if  true,  as  it 
manifestly  is,  in  the  case  of  Humphreys. 

The  day  will  come  when  true  military  crit 
icism  will  judge  correctly  of  the  retreat  of 
Lee  and  the  pursuit  of  Grant.  Neither  [de 
served  the  praise  lavished  upon  them.  That 
Grant  ever  overtook  Lee  at  all  was  entirely 
owing  to  Lee's  unnecessary  delays  and  inde 
cision.  The  Rebel  troops  did  all  that  men 
could  do.  The  leader  in  ability  was  not 
worthy  of  them.  As  I  said  in  my  remarks 
on  "Bridging  and  Fording,"  in  connection 
with  the  fight  at  Cumberland  Church, 
.g^'one  thing  is  certain,  the  Rebels,  during 
the  retreat  from  Petersburg  were  never  stam 
peded.  Stupid  from  want  of  sleep,  beat  out 
through  fatigue,  exhausted  from  want  of  food, 
staggered  by  constant  driving  and  defeat  at 
every  stand  they  may  have  been — but  stam 
peded,  never,  "^g  Wonderful,  wonderful 


breed  of  men  !  How  they  fought ;  although 
they  recognized  from  the  first,  as  they  said 
to  me,  more  than  once,  near  the  field  of  Chan- 
cellorsville,  "We  knew  it  was  the  rich  man's 
war  and  the  poor  man's  fight."  The  Rebel 
civil  and  military  administrative  functionaries 
were  still  more  to  blame  ; — in  fact,  in  some 
respects,  altogether  to  blame.  If  Lee  had 
found  provisions  at  Amelia  Court  House, 
and  kept  moving,  the  pursued  would  have 
distanced  the  pursuers. 

When  Lee  evacuated  Petersburg,  circum 
stances  were  very  much  the  same  as  after 
Ligny  in  1815.  Like  the  Rebels  here,  the 
Prussians  there,  had  been  defeated  and 
"trundled  out"  of  their  positions,  worsted 
but  not  demoralized.  They  retreated ;  the 
night  swallowed  up  all  traces  of  them,  and 
Napoleon  was  at  a  loss  to  know  what  route 
they  had  taken.  It  was  exactly  so  in  1865. 
At  Jetersville,  three  days  after  the  evacuation 
of  Petersburg-Richmond,  Sheridan  expected 
to  be  attacked  by  Lee,  and  Lee  at  one  time 
entertained  the  idea  of  such  a  return  to  the 
aggressive.  On  the  night  of  the  5th  April, 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  pretty  much 
up  in  full  strength.  Now  refer  to  the  ac 
companying  map,  and  although  it  is  on  a 
very  small  scale,  it  reveals  the  situation 
clearly. 

On  the  morning  of  the  6th  Grant  started 
the  three  Corps  which  he  had  with  him  in 
such  directions  that  if  HUMPHREYS  had 
not  discovered  the  Army  of  Northern 
Virginia,  in  the  direction  of  Amelia  Salt 
Sulphur  Springs,  moving  rapidly  across  his 
front,  to  the  westward,  the  Union  infantry 
would  have  been  entirely  thrown  out.  The 
cavalry  could  have  harassed  Lee,  but  they 
could  not  have  handled  his  infantry  which 
would  have  defied  them.  The  Fifth  Corps  in 
their  circuitous  march  6th  to  pth  April  did  not 
come  in  contact  with  the  enemy.  Even  the 
Sixth  Corps,  which  in  conjunction  with  the 
Cavalry  won  so  much  credit  at  Little  Sailor's 
Creek,  did  not  encounter  Lee's  main  body, 
— which  Humphreys  was  fighting  all  day — but 
only  a  portion  of  it,  split  off,  late  in  the  after 
noon  by  Humphreys'  persistent  sledge-ham 
mer  strokes.  This  was  near  the  J.  Holt 
house,  where  Humphreys  put  in  a  section  of 
guns  at  Sheridan's  request.  (Refer  to  the 
map.)  Humphreys  first  struck  Lee  near  Ame 
lia  Salt  Sulphur  Springs,  having  come  up  with 
him  partly  by  fording  Flat  Creek,  armpit 
deep,  partly  by  restoring  a  bridge.  This 
stream  is  80  to  100  feet  wide.  Thereafter 
the  fighting  continued  for  eleven  hours, 
over  14  miles,  until  night  closed  upon  a 


ANDREW  ATKINSON 


' '  heavy  battle ' '  at  the  junc 
tion  of  Sailor's  Creek, 
proper,  and  the  Appo- 
mattox.  Again  and  again, 
the  Rebel  rear  guard  at 
tempted  to  take  up  posi 
tions  and  restrain  the  ardor 
of  Humphreys'  unremitting 
pursuit,  but  in  vain.  The 
map  or  plan  develops  what 
occurred  better  than  it  can 
be  described.  How  many 
men  Lee  actually  had  with 
him  is  very  much  disputed. 
Humphreys,  a  man  of  fig 
ures  as  well  as  of  fighting, 
went  into  a  careful  inves 
tigation  of  these  numbers. 
On  the  morning  of  the  6th, 
Lee  must  have  had  over 
40,000  men ;  Humphreys 
had  about  19,000. 

As  said  before,  Lee  in  his 
retreat  showed  how  little  of 
a  general  he  was.  Had  he 
made  one  of  von  Bulow's 
eccentric  retreats  he  might 
have  given  us  infinite  trou 
ble  ;  had  he  sacrificed  his 
baggage,  had  he  even  uti 
lized  the  stores  he  did  pos 
sess  he  might  have  protract 
ed  the  war  to  a  point  that 
might  have  given  the  South 
by  arms  what  they  have 
since  recovered  through  the 
weakness  and  stupidity  of 
our  politicians  at  the  North. 
This  retreat,  if  everything 
in  his  whole  career  failed 
to  prove  it  demonstrated 
he  had  no  adventure,  no 
adaptativeness,  no  origi 
nality  of  mind.  It  was  not 
even  the  retreat  of  a  pedant 
nor  of  an  academician, 
much  less  of  an  expert.  It 
was  simply  an  obstinate 
rushing  on  until  caught  in 
a  net,  such  as  should  have 
been  set  on  the  6th  to  take 
him  on  the  yth.  So  Sir 
Robt.  Wilson  foresaw  the 
hopelessness  of  a  general 
"engaged  in  a  stern  chase 
after  Tome,  of  which  he 
never  more  could  gain  or 
keep  the  lead." 

As  von  Clausewitz  says 
— referring  to  the  concen- 


2-0 


ANDREW- ATKINSON  HUMPHREYS. 


tration,  ordered  and  expected,  upon  Na 
poleon  at  the  Beresina  "the  threads  were 
now  gathering  up  into  the  final  knot" 
Lee's  Beresina  should  have  been  at  Cumber 
land  Church.  Why  it  was  postponed  to 
Appomattox  Court  House  is  not  one  of  the 
secrets  pigeon-holed  by  red-tape  to  which 
Metternich  alludes,  but  one  of  those  which 
can  never  be  solved  through  the  dissolution 
of  the  mortal  brain  that  conceived  and 
held  it. 

If  people  personally  interested  would  only 
abide  by  impartial  criticism  and  not  allow 
passion  to  interfere,  it  would  be  found  that 
the  influence  of  the  cavalry  upon  the  capture 
of  Lee  was  small.  They  did  gobble  large 
slices  of  his  impedimenta — "impedimenta 
belli  et  fugcz" — admirably  expressive  now 
in  every  language — but  de  Trobriand  and 
others  aver  that  a  great  many  of  the  cap 
tured  wagons  contained  trash.  Indeed  it 
is  wonderful,  that,  when  to  escape  it  was 
necessary  to  strip,  what  an  enormous  amount 
of  stuff  the  Rebels  dragged  after  them. 

On  the  evening  of  the  6th,  Wright  and 
Sheridan  had  captured  Swell's  Corps  ; 
Mahone's  (Rebel)  division,  which  had  been 
transferred  to  Longstreet's  command,  had 
repulsed  the  Union  cavalry  in  the  direction 
of  High  Bridge ;  Longstreet  had  about  de 
stroyed  a  detachment  of  the  army  of  the 
James  near  Rice's  Station  ;  and  Humphreys 
fought  a  final  heavy  battle  at  Perkinson's 
Mills,  to  which  complete  darkness  alone  put 
an  end.  Night  again  afforded  respite  to  Lee 

Next  morning  with  first  light,  Humphreys 
moved  again,  found  the  enemy  in  force,  be 
tween  8  and  9  o'clock,  at  High  Bridge ;  drove 
them  across,  captured  and  saved  it.  About  i 
p.  M.  with  two  divisions — he  had  detached  a 
third  division  to  follow  up  a  column  retreat 
ing  on  Farmville — Humphreys  came  up 
with  the  whole  of  the  remains  of  the  army  of 
Northern  Virginia,  concentrated  and  strong 
ly  entrenched  at  Cumberland  Church  and 
there  he  held  them  until  night  and,  then 
and  there,  Lee's  army  might  have  been  and 
should  have  been  destroyed. 

The  telegrams  and  despatches  of  that  day 
have  been  collected,  collated  and  published. 
At  2.20  P.  M.  enough  troops  were  collected  at 
Farmville  to  swarm  Lee  out.  Farmville  is 
only  about  3  miles  from  where  Humphreys 
was  holding  Lee.  The  excuse  for  not  taking 
advantage  of  circumstances,  and  thus  then 
and  there  overwhelming  Lee,  was  that  the 
river  was  not  fordable  and  the  bridge  over  it 
burned.  With  a  large  village  or  townlet  at 


hand  to  furnish  materials,  with  many  large 
trees  about,  and  with  thousands  of  teams 
and  competent  hands  ready  and  willing,  the 
river,  about  100  feet  wide,  say  125,  could 
and  should  have  been  bridged  within  two 
hours.  Besides  other  methods,  a  cantilever 
bridge,  using  the  abutments  of  the  burned 
viaduct,  would  have  been  most  simple,  easy 
and  speedy.  To  the  objection  that  the 
Appomattox  was  not  fordable  there  were 
living  refutations  at  the  time  and  on  the  spot. 
Fitz  Lee's  whole  cavalry  forded  on  the 
morning  of  the  yth.  Crook's  division  of 
cavalry,  with  its  trains  and  artillery,  in  the 
early  afternoon  forded  belly  deep,  was  sur 
prised,  came  to  grief,  and  re-crossed  by 
fording  at  Farmville  again.  The  map  shows 
the  Old  Plank  Road,  mid-way  forking  into 
two  roads,  by  which  and  across  country  the 
6th  Corps  and  the  24th  Corps,  (and  the  5th 
Corps  ?)could  have  been  thrown  entire  by  5 
o'clock  in  the  rear  of  Lee's  position  and 
there  with  energy  and  will — there  where  the 
last  stand-up  fight  between  the  army  of 
Northern  Virginia  and  the  combined  or 
consolidated  2nd  and  3rd  Corps  under  Hum 
phreys,  representing  the  Army  of  the  Poto 
mac,  took  place  —  there  at  Cumberland 
Church,  on  the  yth  April,  the  main  army  of 
the  Rebellion  should  have  been  consumed  in 
a  blaze  of  glory  and  not  allowed  to  get  off, 
and  keep  on  for  about  40  miles  and  40  hours 
to  quietly  surrender  on  the  9th  April,  Palm 
Sunday,  at  Appomattox  Court  House. 

The  operations  and  pursuit  of  the  Rebel 
forces  this  day,  (yth  April)  by  the  combined 
Second  and  Third  Corps  alone,  and  the  fight 
with  Lee's  whole  remaining  army  at  Cumber 
land  Church,  may  recall  to  the  reader,  well 
posted  in  history,  the  attempted  escape  of 
Admiral  Decres  in  the  William  Tell,  eighty- 
six  guns,  on  the  3oth  March,  1800,  from 
Malta.  (Brenton  iii,  19-20).  Pursued  by 
the  blockading  fleet,  the  French  Leviathan 
was  overhauled  by  the  British  frigate  Pene 
lope,  thirty-six  guns,  which  although  nearly 
annihilated  by  the  tremendous  broad-side 
of  its  gigantic  antagonist,  inflicted  such  dam 
age  upon  the  latter  as  to  cripple  it  and  ensure 
its  capture.  Or,  to  institute  a  parallel  nearer 
home,  let  the  reader  recall  the  pursuit  of 
the  frigate  President — "a  seventy-four  in 
disguise"  by  a  British  squadron  in  January 
1815,  (Cooper's  History  of  the  United  States 
Navy,  ii  Chapter  26).  Overhauled  by  the 
Endymion,  a  twenty-four  gun  ship,  which 
boldly  threw  itself  in  the  way,  the  United 
States  vessel  was  sufficiently  injured  to  render 
escape  impossible,  and  even  our  Decatur 


ANDREW  ATKINSON 


shortly  after  found  himself  compelled  to  sur 
render. 

Lee,  likewise,  must  have  put  a  high  esti 
mate  on  the  situation  at  Cumberland  Church 
or  Heights  of  Farmville,  yth  April,  1865, 
p.  M.,  since  he  remained  in  person  on  the 
ground  till  very  late,  if  not  till  next  morning; 
for  during  the  night  Grant's  first  proposition 
to  Lee,  requesting  his  surrender,  was  for 
warded  through  Humphreys'  line  and  then 
through  Mahone's,  under  a  flag  of  truce,  or 
rather  under  a  red  light,  as  a  flag  could  not 
be  seen. 

That  Lee  dreamed  he  had  accomplished 
something  of  importance  in  holding  his 
own  against  Humphreys  would  seem  to 
be  attested  by  the  fact  that  he  was  "encour 
aged  by  the  ephemeral  gleam  of  success," 
(Draper  iii,  588)  to  dream  again  of  eventual 
triumph.  That  Lee  was  even  yet  sanguine  of 
escaping  to  renew  the  struggle,  seems  to  be  the 
spirit  of  all  the  Southern  authorities,  and  a 
correspondent  stated  (29,  8,  71),  that  one  of 
the  orderlies  belonging  to  Lee's  headquar 
ters,  wounded  and  captured  on  the  8th  of 
April,  "was  sanguine  of  success,  and  firmly 
believed  that  our  army  would  be  totally  de 
feated." 

Now  laying  aside  all  bias  and  partiality, 
let  each  reader  ask  himself  if  the  history  of 
our  own  war  presents  a  more  glorious  exhi 
bition  of  the  spirits  of  the  true  soldier  at  the 
head  of  a  body  worthy  a  Lancelotic  leader 
than  that  of  Humphreys  at  Cumberland 
Church?  Whoever  fought  the  Army  of 
Northern  Virginia  under  such  disadvantages 
without  ruing  the  day  ?  The  writer  will  not 
say  fought  Lee,  because  he  does  not  believe 
in  him;  but  fought  Longstreet,  grim  and 
doughty  ;  Gordon,  able  and  fiery;  Mahone, 
spiteful  and  dangerous  as  a  tiger ;  not  to 
mention  others  who  for  years  had  upborne 
the  Stars  and  Bars  with  unwavering  constan 
cy  and  rare  capacity.  That  such  as  these 
did  not  crush  Humphreys  is  the  marvel ; 
that  he  kept  such  as  these  up  to  their  work 
from  noon  till  dark  is  the  greatest  marvel. 
For  half  that  Spring  day  he  was  at  them, 


watching  them  as  the  panther  the  buffalo, 
harassing,  attacking,  bleeding  them,  and 
only  prevented  from  the  fatal  spring  because 
he  did  not  have  the  buffalo's  relative  weight 
and  strength  to  make  the  spring  fatal  and  the 
rush  profitable.  Take  Mahone's  testimony, 
and  the  evidence  shows  that  Bratton's  bri 
gade  in  reserve  was  needed  at  every  point 
throughout  the  afternoon. 

Humphreys  gave  the  enemy  no  respite. 
His  sword's  point  was  always  ready  for  an  un 
guarded  aperture  or  a  loosened  rivet. 

Had  any  of  our  Generals  done  this  before  ? 

Grant's  first  summons  for  Lee  to  surrender 
was  sent  through  Humphrey's  lines  at  dark, 
and  all  the  subsequent  notes  passed  through 
Humphreys'  lines  until  Lee  was  actually 
brought  to  bay  at  Appomattox  Court  House. 
Why?  Because  Humphreys  was  always 
nearest  to  Lee,  pressing  him,  depleting  him, 
holding  him.  When  the  last  stand  was 
made,  Humphreys  was  again  close  upon 
Longstreet's  corps  or  division,  and,  unques 
tionably,  if  he  had  not  been  restrained  by 
orders,  he  would  have  annihilated  the  force 
opposed  to  him.  I  have  always  maintained 
that  Lee  was  not  the  great  general  South 
erners  and  dough-faces  have  claimed,  nor 
equal  to  Albert  Sydney  Johnston  or  Joseph  E. 
Johnston.  Lee  had  every  advantage.  Among 
these,  the  best  army  and  the  best — most 
appropriate — field  for  it.  I  have  also  held 
that  there  were  more  able  Generals  at  the 
North  than  at  the  South,  judging  of  the  lat 
ter  by  those  who  were  permitted  to  become 
prominent,  because  there  was  as  much  per 
sonal  and  political  favoritism  at  the  South 
as  at  the  North;  and  that  in  the  Union 
army,  the  best  and  greatest  were  George  H. 
Thomas,  whose  only  fault,  if  it  was  a  fault, 
was,  he  would  take,  time,  and  that  other  one, 
who  was  always  up  to  time  and  never  behind 
hand  anywhere  or  in  anyway,  Andrew  At 
kinson  Humphreys. 

J.  WATTS  DE  PEYSTER, 

Brev.  Major  General,  S.  N.  Y. 

Honorary  member  of  Diagnothian  Literary   Society 
of  Franklin  and  Marshall  College,  Lancaster,  Pa. 


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